Slow Down A New Beginning
by Luna Cat Shadow
Summary: What if Delia Ketchum was actually a responsible parent and didn't let Ash leave home with only a disobedient Pikachu as his only companion?  What if he was forced to stay at home and learn to connect with his Pokemon before she would let him leave?  Could a headstrong kid benefit from the lesson of learning to slow down and do things right? Co-Writter and beta CerberusLabrat
1. Chapter 1

**Hey this is Luna Shadow Cat and this is my first Pokemon story. This is a different start on Ash's journey. My twist is what if Ash's mom, Delia Ketchum, would not let him start his journey until he got Pikachu to listen to him and was forced to stay home? How will being forced to slow down change Ash's start? Read and find out! I also have a beta reader now, so thanks for the help CerberusLabra.**

A young boy was still in his night clothes, running as fast as he could to Professor Oak's lab. The boy, Ash Ketchum, was hoping that there would still be a Pokemon left after waking up _far _too late. When he finally got to the lab, he saw someone he wished he hadn't. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Ashy-Boy."

That caused a dissatisfied growl to grow deep in Ash. "Hey Gary." was out of his mouth before he noticed the Pokeball in Gary's hand. "What Pokemon did you pick?" Of course, to this question, his childhood friend and rival simply gave a smug smile. "If you were here that was the last Pokemon, and the best. So good luck trying to start without one. I'm going to be a Master with this one. Smell ya later." With this, he got into a car with a group of female cheerleaders and drove off.

Another growl came up Ash's throat before he could stop it. "That no good, smug..._show-off_..." He muttered while running up the stairs to ring the doorbell. A man in his fifties answered, wearing a lab-coat. "Ah. Ash. I see you finally showed up."

"Yes, Professor Oak. I came here to get my Pokemon...Please tell me there's one left..."

The Professor nodded. "Please, Follow me." Once inside, on a pedestal almost in the middle of the room, were three Pokeballs containing the starters for the Kanto region.

"Sweet, I choose Charmander!" The raven-haired boy exclaimed as he picked up one of the three balls. The ball opened. Empty.

"I'm afraid that was chosen by a trainer who wasn't late." The Professor mused from his position, standing to the side.

"Okay..." Ash put that Pokeball and grabbed one of the others. "Then I choose Bulbasaur!" Once again, it was empty.

"Early bird catches the worm...or in this case, Pokemon."

At this point, Ash was desperate. He grabbed the last of the three red and white spheres. "Then I'll take Squirtle!" Just as the rest. Empty.

"Gary got the last one I'm afraid."

_Crap..._ Ash put the ball back. His face falling in disappointment. "Professor are there _any _Pokemon left that I could have?"

The Professor mulled over it for a brief moment. "Well I do have _one_ Pokemon with me, but there is a little problem with it..."

"I don't care! I'll take it!"

"Okay. Just be careful." The Professor sighed, taking out a Pokeball with a lightning bolt sticker attached to the red half and handed it to the raven-haired boy.

Ash opened this Pokeball. A flash of white exploded forth, nearly blinding him for a moment before it re-shaped and took the form a small, yellow, rodent with red cheeks and a tail shaped like a lightning bolt. "It's a Pikachu!"

"Pika, pika, chu." The mouse replied, ears twitching with life.

"I'll take it as my starter!" Ash rushed to the rodent and hugged it. Apparently, the Pikachu didn't like this and shocked Ash hard with an electric attack of sorts. The next thing he knew, he was lying on the floor twitching, hair standing everywhere and his body sparking from the shocks.

"Pikachu is also known as the Electric Mouse Pokemon." Professor Oak decided to inform. "It's cure, but it can also generate powerful electricity. Rather shocking isn't it?" He proceeded to hand over a red Pokedex and five of the red and white spheres. "Here's your Pokedex and five Pokeballs to get you started."

"Thanks Professor." As soon as Ash touched them, Pikachu let loose with another Thundershock, frying both the adolescent and the worn Professor.

Back outside, a few moments later, Ash and the Professor exited the lab to find a small group of people waiting to cheer for Ash.

In front of this group was Delia Ketchum, none other than Ash's mom. "Uh...Mom? What's going on?"

"Ash, at last you're leaving to become a Pokemon Master. I am so proud of you... But you know I am going to miss you a lot, right?" After this tiny little rant, Delia seemed to noticed Pikachu standing at her son's side. "Is that your Pokemon? Oh he looks so cute! But why is he out of his Pokeball? I thought all Pokemon had to remain inside?"

"Oh. Right. Pikachu, return." Ash answered, dumbly reaching for the mouse's Pokeball to try and beam him back into the little device... But the mouse kept side-stepping and dodging the red capture beam, and when Ash threw it at him, Pikachu swung around and smacked it with his tail, sending it flying back straight into Ash's face.

Delia frowned. "It's strange but not uncommon for Pokemon to be scared to be inside it's ball."

Not pleased by this statement, Pikachu cried out, shocking the whole crowd with another Thundershock, sending everyone to the ground reeling.

"Uh...Mom, I might need some rubber gloves and some rope..." In response to _this_, Delia rose up, a smug look plastered on her face and turned to her son. "No, you will not."

If a question mark could have appeared above Ash's head in confusion at the statement, it probably would have. "What I mean is that you will not start your journey until you and Pikachu can get along."

"WHAT?!" The shock was written on Ash's face like an open book. He could see she meant what she said. "But it's not fair. Gary already started his journey, he's way ahead of me-"

He was cut off. "And he'll stay of you if you start like this. If you and Pikachu don't get along you're just going to anger some wild Pokemon like a Spearow...or worse, you'll get chased and you'll end up getting hurt because Pikachu won't defend you. As your mother how can I stand by and let that happen?" The firm glare she held left no room to argue as she huffed and spun on her heel to walk home. "Come on, both of you."

Ash hung his head, but followed his mother. Pikachu coming along to avoid the wrath of a woman scorned. She was even scaring him.

At home, Ash sat down, moping about what had happened, already changed out of his night clothes and into his everyday clothes. Pikachu slept on top of his bookcase.

"Instead of moping all day why don't you go outside and do something?" Delia asked, receiving a depressed sigh in response. "Like what?" When she glanced into his room and caught sight of her son, she felt guilty, but she knew this was the right thing to do. He needed to figure out how to slow down and learn things as he went along. Slow and steady won the race, what would it matter if he got all eight badges faster than Gary if they were all going to be sitting and waiting for months for the league to start anyway? She shook her head, deciding to let Ash figure that question out for himself as she left him alone.

Ash, with his Pokedex in his hand, decided to play around with it a bit, so...as any kid would do...he started pressing buttons. "_I am Dexter, a Pokedex programmed by _Professor Oak _for _Pokemon Trainer Ash Ketchum_ from _Pallet Town. _ My function is to provide information and advice regarding Pokemon and their training. If lost or stolen, I cannot be replaced."_

Ever the curious one, Ash was of course interested in this information, pointing the red device, apparently named Dexter, at Pikachu and let it scan the mouse for a brief moment.

_Pikachu, the Mouse Pokemon, it stores electricity in the sacs on it's cheeks. When it releases pent-up energy in a burst, the electric power is equivalent to a lightning bolt._

_Type: Electric_

_Gender: Male_

_Abilities: Static_

_Attacks: Growl, Thundershock, Quick Attack, Tackle, and Agility_

The kid's eyes widened. "Oh this is so cool." And so, he continued to play with it. Learning quickly that not only did it record Pokemon and a lot of information on them, but it also a map, his trainer ID, and it kept up with his winnings, effectively functioning as a mobile bank account. He only had $250 to start, but the more wins he got the more money he would earn. If he lost, his money would automatically transfer to the person who defeated him.

He was interrupted by his mother popping into the room and informing them it was time for lunch.

Deciding to carry his lunch outside and surprisingly, the yellow mouse apparently decided to follow him; until they got to a small pond within the borders on the south end of Pallet Town. Sitting down by the water, he pulled out his food and silently ate while watching the scenery; so caught up was he in this that a splash caught him off guard, making him jump. The jarring movement caused a Pokeball to fall out of his pocket and roll down the short hill into the pond, touching the Pokemon and sucking it inside before Ash could even really see what it was.

Two shakes back and forth were all it took before a cling sounded signifying that it was sealed with...whatever...captured inside it.

"I caught my first Pokemon!" Ash jumped up, this time in excitement, before noticing that the ball was about to roll into the water. He dove in after it, when he broke the surface again, he was laughing; he was soaked. But he was happy. Maybe he'd get to start his journey now. Eagerly releasing the Pokemon, he was greeted by a organ fish with yellow whiskers and fins. The fish looked back at him.

Ash couldn't help but smile at it. "Hi, I'm Ash. I guess I'm your trainer now. I hope we can become great friends?" The fish seemed pleased with this question and began to splash around in the pond happily. "I have a feeling you're going to be a powerful partner."

"A Magikarp? Powerful? Yeah, right." A snobby voice cut in to ruin his good mood. A little brat of a kid was staring down at them from the edge of the pond. "Magikarp are a weak and pathetic excuse for a Pokemon, all they can do flop and splash around..."

It would only take a glance at the organ fish to note that it was looking down, hurt by these comments. "You're wrong. Magikarp is great Pokemon. So what if it's weak right now? You've gotta start somewhere. Me and this Magikarp are going to train until it's the most powerful it can be. Right Magikarp? We'll be the very best!"

If the fish had tear glands, it's eyes would have watered at the touching vow. It splashed up and down in the water again, voicing it's name in agreement. "Mag-karp!"

"Whatever. You're a loser." The scoffed and walked away. For some reason, his attitude just reminded Ash of Gary...Instead of letting it get to him, Ash made his way out of the pond to sit on the grass and grabbed Dexter to scan his new friend.

_Magikarp, The Fish Pokemon is virtually useless in battle as it can only splash around. As a result, it is considered to be weak. However it is actually a very hardy Pokemon that can survive in any body of water no matter how polluted it is._

_Type: Water_

_Gender: Female_

_Abilities: Swift Swim_

_Attacks: Splash_

Once again, Ash looked to the fish and smiled. "So you can survive in any type of water huh? That's cool. You've gotta be strong to do that."

The Magikarp's scales seemed to darken to a deeper organ at that suggestion.

"Hey, Pikachu, check it out!" Ash called out, the yellow mouse waking up with a yawn, staring at Magikarp...and then proceeded to laugh. The fish voiced displeasure at this, growling it's own name. "Karp!" it exclaimed in indignation and jumped into the air, crashing into the pond and flicking it's tail to splash water on Pikachu. A moment later it rose up to look at the rodent smugly.

Pikachu wasn't even close to amused. He was shocked, and rather annoyed. His cheeks began to spark threatening. "Oh no...Magikarp Return!" Ash stated, seeing that this interaction was going south rather quickly, a beam of red light caught Magikarp in the side and sucked it back into it's Pokeball just in time to save it from the Thundershock. Ash wasn't so lucky.

He was flat on the ground, smoke coming off of his body and out of his mouth as he rose his head up to glare at his starter. "Hey, what was that for?"

His answer was a shrug before it turned to head home.

-HOME-

Ash was in the bathroom filling the tub with water. He had already let his mother know about Magikarp. She was happy he caught a new Pokemon and was impressed with him as soon as he told her that he was going to train the fish first before running ahead to challenge every gym now that he had a Pokemon that would listen to him. He was learning.

Ash released Magikarp into the bathtub. The fish looked around in confusion but brightened and looked happy when she saw her new trainer and started to splash in the water.

Ash chuckled at that. "Easy girl."

"Karp, karp!"

Ash smiled and started to rub the top of the fish as he looked outside the window to see Pikachu on the roof just outside, enjoying a thunderstorm that had rolled in since he returned home. "Dexter did say that Electric Pokemon love thunderstorms. Gives them a charged feeling or something like that?"

Somehow, this gave him an idea. "Hey, I have an idea." He announced, causing Magikarp to look at him curiously.

"I should give all my Pokemon names. That way you can have your own identity. It might confuse any opponents for a second and catch them off-guard...I'll be able to call you out in a crowd...and if someone I battle has another Magikarp I'll be able to tell who's who."

He pondered his reasoning's for a moment. "You're determined, deliberate in pursuing ambitions, but you have to be patient since it takes so much longer for you to grow. How about Bulma for you?"

The new name caused the fish to splash up and down happily. In doing so, knocking Ash into the tub with it.

Laughter filled the room and turned to see it coming from his little yellow mouse. "Yeah yeah, I know that was funny. Why don't you come in and join us?" The rodent responded by sticking it's nose up and turning around to watch the storm once again.

"I don't understand this mouse...One moment it likes me, the next it's mean to me. It's so unpredictable. Like..." He paused, zoning out in thought, before seeming to come back to reality; crawling out of the tub to make his way to the window, he stuck his head out. "How do you like the name Storm, Pikachu?"

The mouse thought about it for a moment and then nodded his head in agreement. Smiling to himself he saw the storm clear up and a rainbow was forming. He caught sight, above the rainbow, of a similarly colored bird flying across the sky. "Whoa, what's that?"

_There are so many Pokemon that some have yet to be discovered._

"Well. This isn't how I planned to start...But I guess it's good to start things differently. I mean...Look what you can learn if you slow down just a little bit."

** Well there you go, One Chapter finished. I'll answer any questions you may have. Second of all, yes, I'll take suggestions for Pokemon for Ash but I'd like a reason why you think he should have that particular Pokemon. I also want Ash to catch Pokemon for his mom, so please list some Pokemon you can see with her. Please, please, please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I can't believe how popular this was after one chapter. I also have a beta reader now, so thanks for the help CerberusLabrat. I am so happy! **

** Alright, so here are some facts I am going to go over for this story. Yes Misty and Brock will join Ash on his journey, but there won't be any Pokeshipping. I can only see Ash and Misty as friends in more of a sibling relationship. Plus Ash is ten years old, he's too young to really care about romantic interests. However, I am still going to add different girls who will take a liking to him. Of course Ash will not fully understand what's going on. But Misty and Brock will. Misty, being a big sister, will try to protect Ash from the girls while Brock, being like a big brother, is trying to push Ash and the girls to gather. Also might add a dash of Yaoi teaser in there for the fun.**

** As far as Pokemon go I love all the suggestions, some will be added early and some later. I don't want to give Ash all strong Pokemon at first. And yes Ash will catch most of all originals. The only one I'm not going to add is Butterfree, I want the pink Butterfree instead. I thnk it'd be funny if the cute Pokemon has a little crush on him. So I see him getting tackled by the Pink butterfly.**

** Ash will catch Pokemon for his mom so I want suggestions. (CerberusLabrat: I suggest Growlithe. Yay loyal fire-breathing guard dog) **

** Misty will still be a water trainer but she will not be on the side line being useless. Instead she'll become stronger and smarter. I still want suggestions for Pokemon for her to catch.**

** Brock will not stick to Rock Pokemon, instead, he'll catch any Pokemon that will help him to be a better breeder. i.e. Chansey, Paras, and Miltank.. Still want suggestions for Pokemon for him to catch.**

** Now that that is over with, on to the story! **

-THE NEXT MORNING-

We find Ash Ketchum, sleeping peacefully in his comfortable bed with a stickered Pokeball tucked beside him on his pillow. His Pikachu, now named Storm, was resting on the windowsill in his bedroom. When the sunlight hit his face the young trainer's eyes started to open. His dark eyes opened then a yawn escaped his lips while he stretched his arms above and climbed out of bed to make his way downstairs.

"Good morning sweetie. How are you feeling?" Delia asked with a chipper voice.

"Fine..." Ash grumbled.

Delia blinked and looked at her son in concern. "What's wrong honey?"

"Nothing, I guess. Just trying to think of how to train Bulma and get Storm to trust me."

"Bulma and Storm?" The mother questioned, head tilted to the side.

"Magikarp and Pikachu, respectively."

"Oh. You gave them names. How nice. That's a good step in the right direction."

Ash looked down and sighed to himself. Delia, of course, caught this and smiled slightly. "Y'know, I used to be an intern for Professor Oak."

The boy looked up in interest and mild shock. "Really?"

"Yes, your old mother used to study under the great Professor Oak."

"Wow. I guess you're pretty smart then, huh mom?"

"I could teach you a thing or two, after breakfast I'll show you some of my notes. Maybe they'll help you."

"Alright!" Ash hurriedly started to wolf his food down, eager to start training...and of course, eager to eat his mom's cooking.

"Ash, slow down!" The woman admonished, shaking a spoon at her son disapprovingly.

"S-s-s-orrr—yyyy." Ash forced out with his mouth full of food, causing Delia to just sighed and shake her head.

-THE LIVING ROOM-

Delia pulled a book off the shelf, Ash looking at her in question as she handed it to him. _The Basics of Being a Better Trainer_ by Delia Ketchum. His eyes became saucers at that point. "Mom, you wrote a book?"

"Don't be so surprised. How do you think I managed to afford the house?" Delia laughed at her son.

In response, Ash opened the book and began to read the index;

-Tips on how to get closer to your Pokemon

-What nurturing your Pokemon need

-How to Train your Pokemon

-Type advantages

-Pokeball

-Berries; what are they?

The boy could barely believe his own eyes as he flipped through the pages, as he read he saw what his mom meant by naming his Pokemon.

_Names; one step to bonding with your Pokemon is to give them a name. A Pokemon is your friend as well as your teammate. By giving them a name it shows that you see them more as a partner than as a tool. But make sure your Pokemon like the name, of course. You don't want to give a girly name to a male Pokemon; that's just begging for disaster to strike. Not only will a name give a Pokemon a sense __of identity, but it can help out in battle. If someone else has the same Pokemon there will be less confusion in the battle. Plus it might catch your opponent off guard for a second._

Ash smiled softly, realizing he was at least starting to take the right steps. Deciding to take the book outside he wound up in an open field with the same pond he'd caught Magikarp from the day before. He let the aforementioned fish out in the water; she was so happy to see him again that she immediately started to splash up and down in the water.

"Magik karp karp!"

"It's nice to see you too, Bulma. Ready to train?"

"Karp karp!"

With that, Ash turned to Pikachu as it curled up in the branch of a tree to rest. "How about you Storm, ready to train?" He was answered by the mouse yawning and turning away from him.

He sighed, but turned to face the happy organ fish. At least he had _one_ Pokemon that liked him.

"Alright, Bulma. Ready then?" His answer was her beginning to splash up and down in happiness. He laughed and motioned her closer, pulling out some light training weights that he'd found among his mom's old stuff and tied them to the Magikarp's fins; Bulma felt the weight try to pull her down but she increased her efforts and kept afloat with little difficulty.

"Alright Bulma, now, I realize these things are heavy, but they' ll help you get stronger and faster." He then decided to surprise his fish by lifting the legs of his jeans to reveal he had some ankle weights on his own legs. "Karp?"

"What, you think I'm going to make you do this alone?" Ash chuckled, smiling down at her. "I'm going to train with you." Somehow, this got the lazy mouse in the tree's attention and it couldn't help but turn over and watch as the young trainer joined the weak Pokemon in training.

"Ready? You'll swim laps around the pond and I'll run around it, Ready? Set? Go!" Ash took off running at the same time as Bulma began to swim.

An hour later, they were both exhausted. Of course, being a young kid without much physical activity in his history, he couldn't run the entire time. But he'd tried his best and ran it in intervals. Right now, he had his pants rolled up, the ankle weights laying on the ground next to him as he soaked his feet in the water next to Magikarp, who, while tired, was happily swimming around his feet.

"That was great, How are you feeling Bulma?"

"Magi karp karp!" That, along with her swimming, brought a smile to Ash's face.

"Alright then, next, I think we'll teach you some basic attacks."

At this, Bulma looked confused and inquisitive. "Karp?"

Ash reached into his jacket and grabbed his Pokedex. "I know that brat said the only attack you know is Splash, but I'm pretty sure you can learn more." He scrolled through all the entries until he found the Pokemon he was looking for.

_Goldeen, the Elegant Fish Pokemon; When swimming with it's fins unfurled, it can jab powerfully with it's horn._

"You see? This is another fish Pokemon. But it has more attacks than you. So I figure if these fish can learn all these attacks, why not you?" He looked at the Pokedex seriously. "I mean, obviously anything it does with it's horn you won't be able to do and I'm not sure about water attacks. But I think you should be able to learn basic stuff like Tackle, Tail Whip, Quick Attack and maybe even Agility. I know for sure you can learn Tackle. It'll just take some practice. Want to give it a try?"

It looked like a fish on a mission in response to that speech. "Magi-Karp!"

With a nod, they started to train once more, Ash deciding to teach one attack at a time starting with the one he knew for sure her species could learn according to the Pokedex; Tackle. The young trainer stripped down to his boxers and got into the water with Bulma; proceeding to show her with his own body how Tackle should be done. Not exactly the hardest thing in the world to just throw your body at something was as much force as you could muster. Plus, he was sweaty after the running. Being in the water was nice.

Then it was Bulma's turn. He had her tackle him in the water until she'd learned the basics of how to move to get the most force behind the attack. Once he was satisfied she'd gotten that down, then it was time to work on the good stuff; the speed and strength of the attack. He found a rather large rock; almost a boulder, in the water, and pointed it out to her. Letting her attack it over and over again to practice her new move.

Up in the tree Storm was amazed at how far Ash was willing to go to teach a weak, lowly Magikarp. Even when she messed up, he wouldn't get mad, he wouldn't get annoyed, he'd just encourage her and tell her to keep trying. Even he could see the fish was getting closer and closer to her goal. Next thing he knew the rock Bulma had been attacking crumbled under the force as she slammed into it again.

Ash let out a cheer in excitement when Bulma finally did it. He crashed backwards into the water a moment later when the fish tackled _him _in her own excitement. Her eyes filled with joy, and, once again, had she not been a fish, tears would have been there, as she cuddled as far into his body as she could possibly go. "That was great Bulma! Think you could do it again?"

"KARP!" Bulma replied eagerly, turning, finding a rock on her own, and careening towards it like a torpedo. The rock crumbled. But Ash sweatdropped as he smiled. "Bulma, I didn't say _which_ rock yet." He chuckled. After this, he began to point out rocks here and there.

After the day of hard training they took a break for lunch. The trainer and his Pokemon laid down in peace next to the waters edge to enjoy their lunch, when out of nowhere a Pokemon dive-bombed to attack them from the air. Ash jumped as the bird pulled up and circled around to attack him. He prepared himself as the reddish-brown, almost brick colored bird flew at him before it got blindsided by a tackle from Bulma.

To say the bird was surprised by the actions of the little fish was a massive understatement; it let out an extremely loud screech that almost made Ash's ears bleed; he had to cover them to avoid the pain. "Bulma, watch out!" He called out to her; watching in horror as the bird; a Spearow, launched at her and swooped down with it's claws, grabbing onto the Magikarp and pulling up to haul the fish out of water.

In an instant, Ash threw himself at the bird, preventing it from fully extending one of it's wings and sending it, him, and Bulma crashing into the water with a loud splash. When he broke the surface, he was hugging Bulma in his arms, her Pokeball already in his left hand. "Bulma, return!" He stated quickly as she turned to red energy and was sucked into the capture device.

He crawled out of the pond and spat out water, looking ahead he saw Storm's face; full of shock and mild panic. He turned around; an extremely wet Spearow behind him crawling out of the pond as well...and a flock of not-so-wet Spearow behind that. They didn't waste time in diving towards the pair to attack them both.

Ash, without thinking, scramble to his electric rodent started and dove over top of the mouse to protect it. "Storm, I won't let them hurt you!" He promised, not seeing the rodent's eyes widen.

Storm, of course, saw his tears of pain come to his trainers eyes quickly as he cried out in pain from the scratches and the pecks by the wild Spearow. The kid willing to take all that pain just to make sure he didn't get hurt. Him. The little Pikachu that shocked him for no good reason, ignored him, laughed at him...and yet, he was doing this. Going that extra mile to help him...Why couldn't he just return the favor? His eyes narrowed in determination and he rolled out from underneath his trainer's body shield; jumping into the air with sparking red cheeks.

"PIIIIKAAAACCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHUUUUUU!" He screamed, arching his back and calling down the wrath of Thor on the flock of Spearow in the form of a thunderous blast of electricity; if Ash didn't know better he'd think Storm had just used Thunderbolt...heck, maybe the mouse had.

After the loud crack and the deafening sound of the Thunderbolt faded away the electrocuted birds either fell from the sky with a thud or turned around and flew away as fast as they could.

Next thing Ash knew, Storm slammed into his chest with a hug. He looked down, to see the Pikachu crying and nuzzling it's head into his chest. "Hey, Storm. It's okay. I'm okay."

"Pika-pika." That apparently hadn't helped much in the way of stopping the flow of tears.

"I forgive you. Thanks for saving me." Ash continued as the mouse continued to snuggle. As this was happening, Ash felt something nudging at his leg. Looking down in confusion he saw the wet Spearow; sparking with electricity, spasming in pain, and looking completely burnt. It was growling, whether from anger or pain, or both, unclear.

Ash didn't think twice as his eyes widened, he shifted Storm up to his shoulder, unsure what possessed him to put the mouse there, and then knelt down to snatch up the injured burn, wincing as the aftershocks of Storm's Thunderbolt arced through the wet body against his own as he turned to run home.

"Mom!" He yelled, slamming the front door open.

"Ash? What is it hon-Oh dear!" Delia asked as she ran into the room, sliding to a stop as she saw the injured Pokemon. "Quick. Take Spearow to the kitchen and put out some towels underneath it." She ordered, running past him.

Ash already had the bird laying on the kitchen counter with the towels underneath it when his mother came rushing back with her hands full of supplies; a red colored berry, on a bright green vine with blue leaves on it. She plucked the berry off and tossed it into a bowl like object, then proceeded to smash it up; a mortar and pestle. "This is a Cheri berry, it cures Pokemon of Paralysis." After this she dropped three blue berries into the mix that she'd picked off of a silver vine.

"These are Oran berries, they're nutritious and help Pokemon restore health and stay healthy." She informed, grabbing one final berry; oddly shaped with green and yellow stripes. "And this is an Aguav Berry. It'll add a bitter flavor that bird-types generally love."

After finishing with smashing the berry mix, the blend looked like purple paste. Ash got a spoon out of the drawer and proceeded to try and feed the jelly mix to the Spearow. At first the angry bird hadn't wanted to, but when Ash took a bite of his own to show him it was okay the bird then began to eat. Slowly. Before long it's body stopped crackling, energy began to pour back in, and the pain was starting to go away.

Nearly as soon as it finished eating it yawned and then tucked it's beak in underneath a red wing. Both humans sighed in relief at this, figuring that the bird was going to be fine.

Delia looked at her son in pride when she saw Storm on his shoulder. "When did this happen?" She questioned as she motioned between the two of them. "Uhm...kinda just now, actually." Ash admitted with flushed cheeks.

"So you and Storm are getting along now?" The mother continued; both trainer and the Pikachu looked at each other for a moment before nodding at each with a smile and turning back to her.

"I see, Storm, are you going to protect my baby and listen to him from now on?" It was a mother's stare. The protectiveness for her son, the love, a slight suspicion, but at the same time, hope. The mouse only nodded once, but his expression was what really sold it to Delia.

She laughed and turned around to start dinner. "I guess that means you can leave tomorrow. Oh man. I'm really going to miss my baby boy..."

Ash was confused, furrowing his brow. "Mom? What do you mean?"

"Well, with Storm listening to you now that means you can start your journey. Remember?"

The dots connected and the proverbial lightbulb appeared over the young trainers head while his mom counted down from three on her hand and aloud.

When the countdown hit zero Ash fully realized what she'd said and jumped up excitedly. "Yes! Storm's listening to me now! I can start catching up to Gary!" Storm had to hold on tightly to stay attached to his trainer's shoulder during all the excitement. "Come on Storm, let's go tell Bulma!" The eager excitement didn't die as he bounded up the stairs two at a time.

Delia watched; her son recklessly running up the stairs with and electric mouse barely able to hold on and keep it's perch. Shaking her head at Ash's antics her eyes caught sight of the injured Spearow looking up at the stairs with a mild longing. Maybe Ash had made one more friend than he thought...

**Hope you like the second chapter. Next time Ash finally gets to start his journey! Please review, ask questions, etc. I'll be here to answer any questions you have.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Finally Beginning**

**Hey, this is Luna Cat Shadow. I'm happy that I got so many favorites and followers, but please try to review too. (CerberusLabrat: Yeah, dangit. I'm part of this too!) I want to thank my Beta Reader, CerberusLabrat, who is awesome by the way. **

**So here are some facts I am going to point out; since Ash's journey has been delayed I'm sure you're wondering about the Team Rocket attack on the Pokemon Center in Viridian and meeting Misty. Well; everything was delayed so the same events (mostly) happen, they'll just happen later.**

**Pokemon suggestions that we're using:**

**Ash: Scyther and Sandshrew**

**Delia: Growlithe**

**Misty: Surskit**

**Just because your suggestion isn't up yet doesn't mean it won't be used in the future; these are just the ones I can see the story going with for the time being.**

**ONWARDS!**

-MORNING; ASH'S ROOM-

Ash was getting ready in his room, excited; Today was now the day that he would finally start his journey to be a Pokemon Master after much delay. He put on his clothes; the night before Delia had decided that the outfit her son had picked out was no good, and with her magical maternal prowess...also known as 'the ability to sew', she created a new look for her only child. An outfit that blended fashion with utility.

The dark-haired kid slid on his new jeans; these weren't as loose as his other pair and would hold nicely to his lower-frame. And if he lost his belt they wouldn't fall off quite as easily. He also had a black muscle shirt; a little on the loose side but hey, he was only ten years old. He still had _plenty_ of growing left to do. Over this went a black weight vest; numerous pockets which held plenty of training weights, the item was a little heavy but it was nothing he couldn't handle. When he'd expressed to his mom that he wanted to train alongside his Pokemon she had given it to him telling him that it should help make him stronger, and that she used to wear it when she was a kid.

The boy wasn't sure if he should be happy it fit him, or the fact that his mom was once exactly this size. Over all of this, was a faded blue jean jacket with sweater sleeves; the scrunchy material of the wrist tight enough that, if it were hot, he could just push his sleeves up, and pull them down when it got cold. On the back of this jacket was a Pokeball symbol Delia had stitched into the fabric. The jacket itself was rather functional; on the inside of the jacket, on the left side side, were pockets for a small flashlight, currently filled with a SureFire E2D LED Defender his mom had apparently ordered for him in preparation for his journey. Next to this and on the other side were two small inner pocket designed to hold a couple three by five notebooks or a small field manual each. Stitched to the one on the right side were four elastic loops designed to hold spray potions about the side of an Epipen.

Also on the inside of the Jacket hung four braided lengths of black paracord, similar to paracord bracelets. Finally, in another pocket by his flashlight, was a Smith & Wesson Border Guard 2 Rescue Knife; a four and a half inch folding blade, seat belt cutter, and glass breaker all in one. All of these items were meant to help him out if he ended up losing his backpack or something; at least he would be able to survive.

Then came the final touches to the outfit; a pair of black and dark blue fingerless gloves and a pair of lightweight athletic hiking boots; lightweight and comfortable enough to run in, but sturdy enough to survive the walking in the wilderness he was bound to be doing during his journey. He looked at his messy hair and put on that hat he'd worn in the Pokemon sweepstakes thing; he felt a small twinge of disappointment when he realized it didn't go with the outfit at all, but he took it off anyway.

Brushing his messy hair for the first time in...who knew? Was painful. Every stroke seemed to catch a knot here or there. Maybe he should get a haircut...but for now, his hair was a lot longer than he'd realized; He tied the shoulder length back up into a small ponytail to keep it out of the way and used copious amount of hairspray to style the rest in a spiky, but ordered fashion, the bangs logging together and falling in his face, curved just to side of his eyes in some cases.

Finally finished, he turned to Pikachu and struck a pose. "Whatchya think, Storm?" The electric mouse took his time looking over his trainer and thinking, before it finally rose up his tiny arm in a thumbs up motion and winked. "Pika pika!"

Ash lowered his arm smiling, and his starter bounded up the arm to the perch on his shoulder. He bounded down the stairs in a run, jumping the last few steps. "Hey, mom, take a look." Delia ran out of the kitchen, with the Spearow he'd helped flying in behind her to settle down on the arm of the couch.

Her eyes watered in a mix of pride and sadness as soon as she saw him. "Oh, my baby is growing up..." She rushed over and hugged him tightly, knocking poor Storm off of his shoulder. "Pika!" Storm exclaimed as he fell to the floor with a thud. "You need to turn back into my little boy again. Do it right now." She complained with a pout.

Ash blushed but returned her hug. "Mom, I'm always going to be your little boy. But I do need to grow up...So yeah, I'll just be in a bigger package."

Delia wiped her eyes and smiled down at him. "I know, just don't forget your old mom here okay?"

Ash smiled. "I won't mom. I promise I'll call and let you know how I'm doing."

"You better, Mister."

During this whole exchange, Spearow's sharp eyesight had noticed something. "Spearow!" it cried, launching up into the air and then flying in circles around the mother and son, then turned and broke away; flying up the stairs.

Ash looked to Delia in confusion. "What was that about?" He asked curiously.

"Oh, nothing. Spearow probably just wanted to stretch his wings." Delia replied with a giggle before looking her son up and down to take in his new look. "Uhm...honey, where's your belt?"

A deer in the headlights look crossed over Ash's face as he turned back towards the stairs. "Argh, I left it on my bed!" He bounded up the stairs in the same direction Spearow had gone not a moment prior.

When he arrived in his room, his belt was lying there on the bed just like he'd left it. He approached it and grabbed it with only one thought going through his mind; "Where'd Spearow go?"

As if on cue, one of the...supposedly...empty Pokeballs on his belt started shake, and with a bright flash, a very satisfied looking brown and brick colored bird popped out of the device, looking up and perching in a prideful manner. "Spearow!"

Ash just stared for a few moments, his brain blank; he turned towards his mom, who had followed him up. She was desperately trying to hide her laughter. He looked back down at Spearow. "...I caught Spearow?" he asked, sounding a looking utterly perplexed.

Delia couldn't hold it in after that and burst out laughing, holding her stomach with one arm and bending over. "I think it might be the other way around, sweetie."

The brown and brick bird flapped his wings and flew up to the shoulder that wasn't currently occupied by Storm. "SPEAROW!" He screeched, nudging the side of Ash's head. Bringing a grin to the kid's face. "Well, welcome to the team then."

Out came his Pokedex and he pointed up and turned it around to scan the bird.

_Spearow, the Tiny Bird Pokemon. It has a very loud cry that can be heard over half a mile away. __If it's high, keening cry is heard echoing all around, it is a sign that they are warning each other of danger._

_Type: Normal/Flying_

_Gender: Male_

_Abilities: Keen Eye_

_Attacks: Growl, Peck, Fury Attack, Leer and Quick Attack_

_Note: This Spearow appears to have more body feathers than the average specimen. It's father may have been from a different species._

Ash nodded in interest while Spearow buffed it's chest out in pride, the feathers on it's chest ruffling up. "Alright, so how about a name for you?" Ash questioned, drawing a blank look from both Spearow and his mother when he looked to them. "...How about Jack? Jack Spearow? The Pirate in that mo-ow!" Ash cried, his hand coming up to rub the spot on his head that the bird had just pecked in disapproval. "Okay, not Jack." He closed his eyes to think for a moment. "How about Ace? You look like you can fly really well compared to other Spearow and that's the title for really good pilots..."

The brown bird nodded in approval at the idea.

Soon afterwards, with his backpack slung over his shoulders and Storm and the newly named Spearow perched above either strap, the raven-haired boy turned to his mom to give her one final good bye; walking backwards and waving to her. "Ash! Don't forget to change your you-know-what everyday!" Delia yelled, just loud enough to be heard. This caused the boy to turn bright red. "Mom!" He complained, turning to run away before anything else embarrassing could happen as Storm and Ace both cackled on his shoulders.

-LATER: ON THE ROAD-

Ash was standing the middle of the road, looking at a map on his Pokedex in interest, when a flash of blue caught his eye. He turned to look, and spotted a pair of blue rodent-like Pokemon with spikes on their bodies. He wasted no time in shifting the Pokedex to scan them.

_Nidoran, the Poison Pin Pokemon. Although small, it's venomous barbs render this Pokemon dangerous. This is a mild-mannered Pokemon that does not like to fight. These two are female and have smaller horns than the male of the species._

The smaller of the two Nidoran ran eagerly towards him, it's stance ready to battle. "Mild-mannered? Sure doesn't look like it. Do you want to battle Nidoran?"

The little blue Nidoran chittered excitedly as the larger Nidoran tried to convince it to back off and not to fight. "Alright, Storm, you ready?" Ash asked, looking to his right shoulder, just before the yellow mouse jumped off, doing a flip in mid-air to land on it's feet. "Pika!"

"Spearow!" Ace screeched in protest, making Ash laugh. "I'm sorry, Ace, but you heard Dexter. It's horns are poisonous. You don't have a good long ranged attack yet and I don't want you to get hurt." The bird ducked it's head in both disappointment and agreement.

With that finished, Ash turned his attention back to the battle. "Storm, start with Growl!"

In reply, the Pikachu fell onto all fours, tail high in the air, eyes narrowed, and growled threateningly at the poisonous Pokemon that seemed to back up for a moment in surprise at just how threatening Storm could look. "Now use Quick Attack but watch out for the horns."

Storm's body blurred as he shot towards the Nidoran,

The thing wasted no time in jumping forward and to the side to dodge the speedy attack, using its back legs to land two kicks on Storm's rear quarter, causing the electric mouse to stumble and roll across the ground. The blue mouse turned and growled, jumping on top of Storm, using her forward legs to deliver a vicious fury swipes assault on Storms face.

Nothing could be said against the Pokemon's quick thinking, that was for sure. But it was time to end it. "Alright, Storm. Thundershock while she's still on top of you." Red cheeks sparked once before being followed by a violent cracking of electricity as the miniature thunderbolt slammed into the poisonous opponent. She yelped in pain and scrambled backwards to try and get away from the painful electricity. Shaking her head afterward in an attempt to get rid of the pain; slowly, she stood up with a smirk across her face. It was at this point Ash just knew he had to catch her.

"Storm, finish it with Tackle!" He ordered, the Pikachu acknowledging by racing towards the Nidoran, almost as if he was in a Quick Attack, and slammed into her with all of his might, speed, and body weight. The blue mouse collapsed to the ground in defeat.

"Pokeball, go!" The red and white capture device left Ash's hand with a mission...only to get smacked out of the way. The bigger of the two Nidoran stood protectively in front of the smaller one, eyes filled with tears as her body shook. "N-n-ni-id-o-o-ran." She begged, pawing at the air pleadingly.

The smaller one growled. Pawing towards the fallen Pokeball with determination written across her face. "Storm?" Ash asked in confusion, turning to the yellow mouse; the response was the Pikachu running to the two and beginning to talk; the sounds of a Pikachu and two Nidoran exchanging conversation filled the area.

After a few moments of this, Storm returned to his trained and repeated what he could, using a mix of Pika-talk and body language to get the message across to Ash. Surprisingly, it worked. Apparently, the smaller of the two Nidoran wanted to become stronger and fight in some big battles, it had been trying to find a good trainer to help it along that goal. When she saw Ash she hadn't been able to help herself from being drawn towards him. She wanted him as her trainer because she knew he could help her. However, her big sister, not nearly as aggressive, didn't want her to leave. She didn't want to lose her baby sister.

The raven-haired boy thought over it for a bit while he moved over to the pair of blue Pokemon, kneeling down to their level. He looked into red eyes of the two, back and forth. "So, let me get this straight. You want to come with me and become stronger." He motioned to the smaller one. "Nidoran." It confirmed, nodding, before Ash turned his brown eyes to her sister. "But you don't want to lose your little sister." Tears were his answer as the bigger one looked down and pawed at the ground.

"So how about I catch both of you?" The two tilted their heads in confusion, all attention now on him. "I want to be a Pokemon Master and I think Nidoran would be a great addition to my team." The smaller one sat up straighter and pumped out her chest in pride. "But I don't want to be a jerk and separate the two of you." The expression came crashing down and she looked at the ground. "But, I could just catch you both. The little one can come with me, and the big one can go home to my mom. She's going to be pretty lonely without me around now. It's always been me and her in the house. So if I catch you both, all four of us win; I get a strong new friend. Your little sister gets stronger, you'll still be able to see her, and my mom won't be lonely. What do you think?"

The two sisters glanced at each other, and an instant later, Ash found the bigger one snuggling against his knee as the smaller one ran to the thrown Pokeball quickly and knocked her snout against the button, proceeding to trap herself inside the thing.

After a moment, with both Nidoran caught and subsequently released from their Pokeballs, even as he was applying some potions to the little Nidoran, he was wracking his brain and the Pokedex for possible names. His Pokedex had updated information on her upon catching her; apparently she was a lot more aggressive than the normal Female Nidoran. No duh. "Hey Nidoran?" He asked softly as he petted the top of her head. Causing her to arc her head and blink up at him. "Nido?"

"How's Aednat sound for a name? It means Little Fire in Irish, and you sure have that going for you." Ash smiled down at her. She jumped up. "Nido, nido, nido!" She answered happily.

He decided to leave the name for the bigger sister up to his mom. He couldn't wait to see her face when he got to Viridian and sent the Nidoran back to her.

As the group settled down by a stream for lunch, Ash released Bulma into the water. The little fish was happy to meet her new teammates; Ace and Aednat, and Aednat's sister, who was ducking shyly. The group ate in relative silence and then decided to do some quick training; tying weights to everybody and then making sure his own weight vest was secure, everyone did some light running. Which somehow turned into a race for all the Pokemon; which turned into Bulma and Aednat arguing with Ace about him flying. And then Ace pointing out that Bulma was swimming. Which caused the Magikarp to smack the bird in the face with her tail and call her name to remind the bird that she didn't have legs.

From there pecking, scratching, and tail-slaps were going on all around the clearing. Storm being ignored as he tried to keep the peace until he sighed. "Piiikaaa—CHUUU!" He yelled out, calling down a thundershock on all three of the others. Since he was Ash's first Pokemon, he should be the leader.

The young trainer sighed to himself, but grinned when he looked over his team. He had a lively bunch of Pokemon but he wouldn't change them no matter what. "Alright, guys, enough of that. We are gonna train. Not fight amongst ourselves. You guys ready?" All of them turned to him and forgot all bickering with determination written across every face. "Let's get started!"

**Fin Chapter 3.**

**Ok we got a poll for you. We want to add a shiny pokemon to Ash team but can't decide which one so... All you get to help PM Me or put on the review what type of shiny should Ash get. The top answer or the most awsome one will win. So post now! There are so many it hard to choose so help us out. THANK YOU!**

**Please review and ask questions!**

**Ash's Team:**

**Pikachu AKA Storm**

**Magikarp AKA Bulma**

**Spearow AKA Ace**

**Nidoran (F) AKA Aednat**

**Delia's:**

**Nidoran (F)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Meeting Misty and Team Rocket**

**I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read this story. And I would also like to extend a thank you for those who take the time to review. It really makes us (Luna Cat Shadow and CerberusLabrat) happy to read your comments. To those of you who followed or favorited our story we'd like to thank you. But we'd also like to ask that you _Please Review._**

**There are nearly 40 follows and 39 favorites right now, but only 14 reviews. **

**Please review the story to let us know how we're doing, and what you'd like to see more of.**

**(Luna Cat Shadow: *Deep breath*) Okay, now that that's out of the way.**

**Yeah Question from WishStar: There is no set in stone shipping but I have three girl in mind that are going to interested Ash they will pop out during random time.**

**A specifical shout out to ****Lightningblade49**** I love your review and want to thank you because you got mind rolling for future chapter. **

**I also want to thank my awesome, cool, and fantastic beta reader... (drum roll please) CerberusLabrat! Who I would be lost without. (CerberusLabrat: Oh shush, you.)**

**Pokemon suggestions that we're using:**

**Ash: Scyther and Sandshrew**

**Delia: Growlithe**

**Misty: Surskit**

**Just because your suggestion hasn't come up yet doesn't mean it won't be used in the future. These are just the ones I can see the story going with for the time being.**

Ash woke that morning in an interesting position. Looking down at how his body lay, he had to wonder how he would get up. Storm was snuggled into his chest, Ace was nestled into his stomach with his head tucked under a red wing. Underneath that, both Aednat and her sister were resting on one of his thighs. He figured if it weren't for the fact that Bulma was a fish,, she'd probably have found her own spot on him to rest. Laughing to himself, he struggled to get his Pokemon awake.

Eventually, he managed to disentangle himself from the drowsy Pokemon. "Alright, guys. We're going to do some stretches and a light jog before breakfast." Each of them gave a grunt and went on with their morning routine, Ash joining them with his own running; having found that nothing woke him up quite like getting his blood pumping with a good jog. After the run had properly woken everyone up and breakfast had been served, they were all off on the road again.

_Auto-Translate: ON_

Ash walked, alternately looking through his book and checking the map on his Pokedex. The smaller Nidoran; Aednat, looked up to he new trainer before asking a simple question; "Is it like this every morning?"

Storm shrugged his shoulders as best he could while perched on Ash's shoulder. "I don't really know but I think he tries to find a good balance between traveling and training."

The larger, unnamed Nidoran, turned to her little sister. "It seems he's pretty smart for his age."

"I don't think he's _that_ smart. More like he has common sense. His mom had to help point him in the right direction." Storm answered, looking down at the Nidoran sisters that were walking alongside.

"What's his mother like?" The larger of the two sisters asked, quite eager to hear about the woman she'd apparently be living with. In response, Ace swooped down and landed on their trainer's backpack. "She's a nice lady. Helped heal me with berries from her garden. And she's smart."

"And a great cook." Storm broke in, licking his lips. The larger of the two Nidoran could only smile, barely able to wait to meet her new friend.

"How's Ash not smart?" Aednat questioned from the position next to her sister. "He trained Bulma. And she's incredibly strong for a Magikarp."

Ace nodded his head in agreement; he'd been at the wrong end of the fish's wrath and knew well enough that Ash had, indeed, done a good job.

"Well...Ash didn't know how to train her. He learned." Little red eyes looked up in question at the yellow mouse. "He asked his mom for advice and she gave him a book. Then he decided to look for other fish Pokemon in the Pokedex and came up with an idea to train her."

"So he made an effort to learn so that he could train her to her full potential." The older Nidoran mused. "He's smart enough to know when to ask for help."

"One thing for sure I can say about Ash..." All the Pokemon that were out of their balls at the moment...meaning everyone except Bulma...looked at Storm. "Is that what makes him stand out more than most...no, _all_ trainers is the lengths he'll go to for a Pokemon. There's no human I've ever met that will go as far as what he's done for Bulma or Ace." He looked up to the sky after saying this, memories flowing through his mind of the first time he met Ash and all the things they'd gone through in the short amount of time since.

_Auto-Translate: OFF_

All present turned to stare at their young trainer. Ash felt eyes on him, and began to look around; and so, his Pokemon, in confusion, looked at him. Having been too distracted from their group conversation to really have noticed whatever it was their trainer had. "Wha-t-t-ah?"

Out of nowhere, a scream pierced the air. "LOOK OUT!"

Before his mind could even full grasp the situation, he found himself in front of a bicycle. A young red-head screaming at him. Next thing he knew he was soaking wet and mostly underwater in a shallow stream.

**CLICK** "Maaaagi-karp karp!" Bulma popped out of her ball; the release button probably hit by one of the stones in the stream, and splashed up and down happily on top of her trainer.

Shaking water out of his ears, Ash looked up in an attempt to catch the license plate of whatever truck had run him over. Except it wasn't a truck.

Instead, he found a redheaded girl, breathing heavily and perched on her bike; both surprisingly dry. His eyes traveled up; red sneakers, tan legs, short jean shorts. A yellow top that showed off her midriff, red suspenders holding up her shorts. Unlike the thoughts of almost any other guy, Ash could only think one thing; _How does she stay warm in that? _Making his way up to her face, he saw bright teal eyes and orange-red hair with a spiked ponytail sticking out the side.

Before he could even ask if she was alright, he felt pain. More specifically, pain in his posterior. "Ah!" He screamed, jumping up out of the water, looking behind him; he could see a purple shell clamped on to his...well, I'm sure you can figure out where.

"Karp-karp-karp!" The Magikarp exclaimed angrily, jumping out of the water and slamming into the shell. Which only caused the oyster-like Pokemon to clamp down harder and pull his flesh with it.

"That's Shellder." The redhead felt the need to supply.

"I don't care what it is! Get it off!" Ash exclaimed in pain. "Ace, peck!"

The brown and brick bird flew into action immediately upon hearing it's name and dived; it's sharp beak starting to peck at the shell of the critter currently attached to his trainer. This only made the clam tighten even more so, somehow.

"Argh! Aednat! Bite!" The Nidoran eagerly jumped into action with bared fangs; going in for the kill. And then Ash tripped over a branch he hadn't noticed; collapsing to the ground by the stream, causing Aednat to fly overhead hopelessly and slam maw-first into a tree. When she recovered mildly from the confusion of what had happened, a rather large chunk of the tree was held between her fangs.

"Storm!"

The Pikachu didn't even need to hear the rest of the order, if there even was one. It jumped off the ground, red cheeks sparking violently. "Pikaaaa...Chhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuu!"

The thunderbolt arced out instantly from the mouses body, slamming into the Shellder head on and forcing the clam to let go, swirls in it's eyes. Underneath, the black haired trainer was twitching as the shocks continued, the fact that he was soaking wet not at all helping. But at least the clam was off.

A look towards the clam would only give you half a second look at it before a red and white sphere smacked into it and it was sucked inside as red energy. A ding was heard almost an instant later confirming the capture; the weak clam unable to do anything to put up a fight.

"Yes! I caught a Shellder." The redhead jumped up and down, hugging the Pokeball.

Now Ash was not only in pain, but quite annoyed. Not only had this redheaded monster run him over, but after all the hell he'd gone through because of the stupid clam, and all the work his team had put forth in order to get it off of him...She dared to catch it. Without even asking if he was alright.

Apparently, Ace shared these feelings. "Ouch!" The girl cried out, and looking up, Ash could only snicker.

Ace was flapping his wings, glaring down at the red head, caught between his talons was the girl's ponytail.

"Tell your Spearow to let go of my hair!" The girl screamed in complaint.

As much fun as it was seeing her get a little bit of a punishment, he didn't like to see anyone in pain. Especially a girl. Curse his mother for that little value.

He picked himself up off the ground, growling in distaste at his wet clothes and the now muddy dirt stuck to his skin. "Ace, let go."

The brick colored bird obediently let go. But let out a loud screech to voice it's dissatisfaction with the girl; straight into her ear, before flying over towards Ash and landing on his shoulder, rubbing the side of his head against the side of his trainers. The yellow mouse on the other shoulder then licked his cheek as an apology for hurting Ash with the Thunderbolt, no matter how unavoidable it was.

The two blue rodents rushed to either side of his body, snuggling their faces into his legs as Ash knelt down to rub their heads. Meanwhile, Bulma was splashing up and down in the stream excitedly; whether from worry or happiness...or maybe a fair mix of both, unclear.

"I'm okay guys." He reassured all of his friends. And once he'd made sure they were all okay; really, the only one he'd had any reason to worry about was Aednat, having flown head first into a tree, he turned to look toward the red head and glared at her.

His glare was joined by five other glares that were even harsher than his own.

"Hey! What's up with your Pokemon? Why are they staring at me like that?"

Ash felt his eye twitch. Rather violently. "Let's see here." He replied, holding up his hand.

"First, you ran me over with your bike." He held up his index finger.

"Then, you caused me to fall in the stream while you remained dry." His middle finger joined his index.

"Three, you didn't offer to help." Ring finger now.

"Four, when the blasted clam bit me you did _absolutely_ nothing." Pinkie.

"Five, after _my _Pokemon knocked said clam out, you caught it and claimed it as your own." And there was his thumb.

By now the redhead was sweating furiously.

"And finally. You didn't ask if I was okay or say sorry." Four of his digits dropped, leaving one of them up for a brief moment in a gesture a ten year old _really_ shouldn't know, before he dropped that as well.

"Are you getting the idea yet as to why my Pokemon _might_ be a little mad at you?" The male growled at the air-headed redhead. The girl's response was a flushed face and bowing her head in guilt; biting her lip in frustration.

In her conscience she knew he was right. But sometimes she let her anger and fear control her and she forgot to use her brain; she couldn't think straight. A tear came to her eyes.

Ash saw this and opened his mouth to say something, but before he could a Pokeball was thrust at his chest. "Here. I...I...I'm sorry...for everything. Okay?" She refused to meet his eyes, hers still glancing at the ground in guilt.

Sighing to himself, Ash started to wonder what was wrong with her. Besides him yelling at her a moment ago. "Look. I'm sorry I blew up at you." Then he did something truly surprising. He closed his hand around hers, that held the Pokeball, and pushed her arm back at her. "You keep Shellder."

This did cause the redhead to bring her eyes up to his in mild confusion, seeing that he meant what he said. "...Why?" she had to ask.

"For one, you look like you really want it. For two...that thing is freaking insane." Ash shivered at the feeling of pain, causing her to laugh at the serious expression on his face as he looked down at the ball with distrust and distaste.

"Don't say that. Water Pokemon are the best!" The redhead responded. "By the way, I'm Misty. And I'm going to be the world's best water trainer." There was a twinkle in her eyes as she announced her ambition while sticking out her hand. Ash grinned back and grasped it firmly. "Ash. I'm going to be the world's best Pokemon Master." With a firm shake after that, a friendship was born.

"So, a water trainer, huh? What type of water Pokemon do you have?" Ash asked

Misty smiled. "Well...I only have four so far. Counting Shellder."

"Do you have any fish Pokemon?" Ash questioned curiously and eagerly. Causing Misty to tilt her to the side in confusion but smile nonethless.

"Yes...Goldeen. Why?"

Ash smiled excitedly so wide it looked like he would split his head open. "Sweet, I bet Bulma would love to battle Goldeen."

Misty's eyes sparked, finally realizing why he asked; he must have a Pokemon that was only mobile in water.

"Bulma?"

Ash simply held up his arm, thumb pointing off to the side towards the stream where a Magikarp was flapping happily. "Yeah. Her. Don't let the fact she's a Magikarp fool you into thinking she's weak. Right guys?" he asked, glancing to Storm, Ace, and Aednat. All of whom nodded their heads, sweat drops appearing as they thought of the power the fish had.

Misty smiled; it wasn't often a trainer spoke so high of a Magikarp unless they either were trying to sell it or wanted it to evolve quick. Which usually turned into a disaster.

"Well, maybe we coul-" The rest of Misty's sentence was drowned out by the roar of thunder, interrupting the rest of her thought process towards finishing the response as well; the entire group looked up at the storm clouds rolling in quickly.

"Oh great, a storm. I'm already soaking wet..." Ash groaned, looking at the clouds.

"Come on, get on the back of the back. We can make it to the Pokemon center in Viridian faster." Misty suggested as she vaulted over the bike, placing herself on the seat and motioning for him to get on the back.

Nodding in agreement, Ash held up four sphere shaped objects. "You got it, everyone! Return!" Ace, Bulma, Aednat and her sister were all transformed into red light and sucked into their small homes. Storm, instead, bounded up Ash's arm, to his shoulder, and held on tight.

Ash got on the bike and wrapped his arms around Misty's waist to hold on tight. "Just don't run over anyone this time."

He was answered by a grin. "Then they need to learn to move out of the way." With that, Misty took off at full speed.

-VIRIDIAN CITY: POKEMON CENTER-

Ash and Misty had just finished checking their Pokemon in. Both were soaked. Good news: They had made it to Viridian City before the rain. Bad news: Officer Jenny had stopped them, thinking they were Pokemon thieves. After trying to hurry up and show their ID's and as the Officer had said her apologies for wrongly accusing them the cloud overhead decided to open up and let buckets of water fall down...on them.

But now they were at least in the Pokemon Center. They decided to go change into drier clothes...or at least, Misty did. Ash just got his room, dried himself off with a towel, and decided to go call his mother.

He walked up to the front desk. "Nurse Joy?"

The Pink haired nurse looked up and smiled at the young trainer. "Yes dear?"

"Can you tell how my Pokemon are doing and where the phones are?"

His answer was for the nurse to set down a tray of Pokeballs with Storm sitting on top. The little Pikachu eagerly climbed up his arm onto his shoulder. Ash smiled fondly at his started and lift an arm to rub the red cheeks that held the mouses electric sacs. He from reading that all Pokemon had a central sweet spot that they like to get rubbed or massaged that helped them to regain energy and keep their power flowing.

"I have to say, Ash. I've never seen such a young trainer bond with all his Pokemon so quickly."

Ash started to blush and rubbed the back of his head. "Well...Thanks, but my mom is the one that helped me a lot." As soon as he realized what he's said his eyes widened; he still needed to send Nidoran to his mom.

"I'm sorry, excuse me." He dashed away, the Nurse behind him just giving a goodbye wave and a giggle. Ash released his two Nidoran.

"Alright, guys. Time to mee my mom. Aednat, Nidoran, you ready?" At their nods, Aednat climbed her way...somehow, onto Ash's shoulder opposite Pikachu, while her big sister became tucked away in the safety of Ash's arms.

The phone stopped ringing, yet the screen remained dark. "Hello?"

"Mom, it's me." Almost an instant later, the screen lit up to show his mom's bright, happy face.

"Oh honey. Good to see you. I hope your journey was safe." Delia smiled brightly at her son, the young mother knew it had only been a few days but she was getting lonely. She look and saw two new Pokemon; both a light blue with red eyes. One on his shoulder and the other snuggling into his arms.

"Oh. You got new Pokemon! How did you catch them? What did you name them?"

Ash's eyes brightened and he grinned like a Cheshire cat. "Well I only got these two Nidoran. They're sisters. The one on my shoulder here is the baby sister, her name is Aednat."

"Nido-nido-ran!" Aednat yipped happily.

"She's a fighter." Ash grinned, and Aednat puffed her chest out in pride while the other two just nodded their head in agreement; Storm eagerly, the big sister, slightly more reluctant.

"And this one..." Ash held the one in his arms up to the screen. "Is Aednat's older sister. Her name is up to you since she's going home to you."

Delia was smiling and nodding when his words sunk in. "...going home to me?" Her eyes widened.

"Yeah, she's more mild-mannered and doesn't like to fight. I figured you might like her instead."

Ash's eyes were closed as he waited for her reaction. But when none came he opened them, to see his mom grabbing her jacket. "hurry up and send my little Riney to Professor Oak. I'll be there as fast as I can." Ash watched in mild astonishment as his mother hurried up and got ready to leave.

"Okay, bye. Love you."

Ash hung up the phone, and immediately dialed the next number.

The screen swiftly switched and Professor Oak appeared. "Ah. Here you are! It's nice to see you've reached Viridian City. The other trainers have made it in no time. Did Pikachu give you any troubles? How are you doing?"

"Yeah. I made it here alright." Ash replied with a dismissive wave.

"I'm glad to see that. You know, when you left here with Pikachu I was worried you wouldn't be able to handle it. Though I still bet my grandson a million dollars that you've caught a new Pokemon by the time you got to Viridian City."

Ash grinned. Seems like Professor Oak was going to be getting a lot of money. "Well, I hope Gary's ready to pay. Because I caught four. Two of them before I even left Pallet Town."

That was all the answer the Professor needed to start grinning like a mad man. "Oh, I knew you wouldn't let me down my boy."

"That's actually the reason I'm calling you, Professor. You see, I caught two Nidoran and want one of them to go to my mom."

The older man nodded his head. "I see. Well in that case, put the Pokeball in the slot under the screen."

Ash did what Professor Oak had said after allowing the Nidoran sisters to wave their goodbyes and recalling the bigger sister. "Okay, got her here."

A door bell was heard. "Oh, the Pizza delivery must be here...Miss Ketchum! Watch out!"

"Professor, where's my little Riney?"

"Delia, watch out for-" Crash. "-...My Pizza."

After this little exchange, the screen went blank. And Ash looked at the two Pokemon on his shoulders before busting out laughing.

-PROFESSOR OAK'S LAB-

The old man stared at the falling Pizza with tears flowing down his face.

"It's okay, Professor. You can come over to my place." Delia smiled reassuringly, already having Nidoran, now named Riney, released and snuggling and cuddling up into her arms.

The old man's eyes brightened; nothing beat Delia's home cooking.

"Ash seems to be doing well so far. But still not as good as my grandson, Gary." The old man smiled with pride.

Delia's eyes narrowed; Riney's even more so as Delia stroked her back, careful to avoid the horns that seeped poison. "Is that so, Professor Oak?"

The old Professor nodded, completely oblivious of the danger he was walking into. "Oh yes. He just earned his second badge and caught twenty eight Pokemon so far and is hasn't even been a week!"

Delia's calm smile was anything but calming; the room temperature seemed to fall a few degrees and...did everything just get darker?

"Well, Professor. My son may not be as far along as your grandson but Ash will still be a better trainer than Gary in the end."

Oak looked in confusion at Delia. "Poor Gary. I really do feel sorry for him. He has to have a car full of older women to travel around." She ducked her head to hide her grin. "He probably has a weak body if it's too hard for him to travel by foot. And don't get me started with his confidence if he has to surround himself with older women to act as cheerleaders to feed his ego..." She shook her, but then tilted it to the side, a smile still brushing her face.

"At least my little Ashy has enough strength and confidence to do things on his own and only ask for help when he needs it."

Oak's eyes bulged and his mouth dropped open. _Did she just..._

"Come on, Professor. I did promise to feed you and I have some fresh pot roast in the oven." She walked away like she hadn't just called Gary a weak, no good trainer, with no confidence. Hell hath no fury like a mother scorned.

-VIRIDIAN CITY: POKEMON CENTER-

Ash finished taking a shower and was walking towards the giant fish tank in the Pokemon Center to say good night to Bulma when some white fur caught his eye and he turned around to spot a lone Meowth. The cat Pokemon froze when it was spotted.

Ash knelt down and smiled. "Hey there." He greeted; said cat beginning to growl; Then suddenly started to purr instead; the young trainer having reached behind his ear to scratch his head. The Pokemon leaned into the touch.

Ash smiled and picked the Meowth up while continuing to pet it. The white cat stretched; enjoying the touch.

"I see you are just good with Pokemon." A familiar voice broke his train of thought.

"Thanks, Nurse Joy. I guess I just really love Pokemon is all." He started to blush.

Nurse Joy giggled at that. "Hey, Ash. Is that another one of your Pokemon?" The redhead; Misty, asked as she walked up to the group.

"No. I just found the little guy walking around." With that, he turned to the pink-haired Nurse. "Do you know he belongs to?"

Before the Nurse could answer, Officer Jenny made an announcement that sounded rather frantic. "Attention! We have signs of Pokemon Thieves in the city! Please be on the look out and be extremely cautious!"

"That doesn't sound good..." Ash started to say when two Pokeballs came crashing down from the skylights in the ceiling.

Pokeball number one released a purplish-gray, ball like Pokemon with a poison symbol on it's stomach. Ball number two, hitting the floor shortly after, released a deep purple rattlesnake; Koffing and Ekans.

"What's going on?!" Misty yelled out over the smoke the Koffing had quickly conjured up.

An unfamiliar female voice broke any attempts at response. "Prepare for trouble."

A similarly unfamiliar male voice joined it. "And make it double."

"To protect the world from devastation." The woman's voice switched off.

"To unite all people within our nation." The man again; apparently the pair was switching off with every line.

"To denounce the evils of truth and love."

"To extend our reach to the stars above."

"Jessie." The smoke faded enough to reveal a woman with long red hair, slicked back with what only had to be a metric ton of hair gel, wearing a white outfit; a short skirt with a white, midriff baring top, a red R on the front, and thigh high black boots.

"James." The male with blue hair appeared next to her, wearing a similar outfit, only with pants and a full jacket with the R on it. He was holding a red rose.

"Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

Then the cream cat with the coin on it's forehead in Ash's arms groaned in annoyance and pushed himself out of his comfortable spot and leapt, landing on two feet on the ground. "Meowth, that's right!"

"What's going on?!" Misty yelled. Starting to get irritated.

"The little girl has no idea what's going on, James." Jessie smirked mockingly.

"Perhaps we should enlighten her?" Her blue haired partner responded with an equal dose of mockery.

"We cam here for da rare and strong Pokemon." The talking Meowth informed in it's heavy accent, front paws perched on it's hips.

Ash was simply surprised that the Meowth could speak the human language.

"Then you came to the wrong place. This is a place for weak and sick Pokemon." Nurse Joy pointed out.

The pair of criminals, plus the three Pokemon, didn't even look the slightest bit discouraged. "Perhaps, but we wouldn't be surprised if there were some rare and valuable Pokemon in this dump." Jessie plotted with a sinister smile.

"Okay, you're really starting to bug me." Ash butted in flatly.

"Did you hear that?" Jessie chuckled.

"The boy is bugged." James mocked, sinister smile matching Jessie's now.

"Meeeowth! Then let's squash him." Meowth's grin was that of a Cheshire cat.

"Koffing!" "Ekans!"

"This way, quick!" Nurse Joy called out to Ash and Misty; the two kids followed after the Nurse into a room filled with Pokeballs.

The lights went out. "What happened?" Misty questioned in concern.

"They must have cut the power. But we got our own Pika power!" Nurse Joy smirked. The emergency lights came on as dozens of Pikachu were running on dozens of wheels, using their electric powers on a generator.

"That's smart. Not many Nurse Joy use Pokemon power." Ash noted, mostly musing this aloud to himself.

Nurse Joy wasted no time in rushing over to the computer and turning it on. "We have to save these Pokeballs before they find us. I'll transport them to Pewter City."

Ash saw the mechanical starting to take each Pokeball, individually, one by one, and the machine transported them to Pewter City...one by one. Far too slow. There was no way they could transport _all _of these Pokeballs out before Team Rocket found them.

If only he'd had his Pokemon with him, but he'd left them in the bedroom he'd booked for the night. Storm was curled up on his bed taking a nap when he'd left.

Ash's fear, of course, came to reality as Koffing burst down the door and broke the shelf that kept the Pokeballs; sending them rolling all over the place.

"Quick! Pick up those Pokeballs!" Cried Nurse Joy, diving for a few herself.

Ash started picking them up when Misty started getting annoyed. "This is war! Don't just hold them, throw them!"

It only took the briefest of moments before Ash figured out what she meant. "Alright, here goes. Pokeball!" He threw one of the Pokeballs in his arms...the only one in his right hand at the moment, and it released...a Pidgey.

"Prrridge prrridgey!" The Pidgey cried out, looking at it's opponent.

The Ekans that slithered through the door just hissed at the Pidgey and it flew in fear. It cried before pecking it's beak against the mechanism of it's Pokeball and returning itself into the safety.

Ash tried another, but it was empty. Joy sighed and confirmed that quite a few of the Pokeballs were, indeed, empty. "We'll never beat them that way!" Misty cried, beginning to freak out.

"Okay, okay. I'll try this one." Ash threw a third Pokeball, on one hand relieved that there was actually a Pokemon in this one...and then not so happy when that Pokemon turned out to be a Rattata.

The Rattata looked determined up til the point it spotted the snake Pokemon it would be facing.

Upon a hiss from the Ekans, the now frightened Rattata promptly turned tail and ran straight back to it's Pokeball, just as the Pidgey had done.

"They're just too strong." Ash groaned.

"Now hand over all the rare Pokemon you've got and we'll be on our way." Jessie demanded, appearing behind the Koffing and the Ekans.

"Alright, just leave it to me. Water's my specialty." Misty sighed, grasping her own Pokeball off of her belt and releasing the Shellder that had clamped onto Ash before.

"Shellder! Use Water gun!"

After a moment of the clam looking at Misty in confusion Ash slowly brought his hand and his forehead together in disbelief. "Did you check to see if Shellder knew Water Gun?"

Misty's face grew red in anger. "Shut up!"

Ash just groaned again. If he had his Pokemon, he could help. Just as he thought this, though. Ekans and Koffing were tackled to the ground.

Storm and Aednat leapt off the two while Ace flew in and circled around Ash's head, using his wings to blow away the light smoke from Koffing.

A plan quickly formed in Ash's head as soon as he saw this, and somehow he managed to keep from jumping into the air with joy. "Aednat, double kick on Ekans. Ace, quick attack on Koffing!" The two pounced on his orders; Aednat jumping up and delivering two swift kicks to the face of the Ekans, while Ace slammed into the Koffing with all the speed and body weight he could muster, straight between the eyes of the gas bag.

"Storm, get the other Pikachu ready on my mark."

"Pika pika!" Storm called to the other Pikachu on the wheels.

Ash nodded to his Pokemon that were busy attacking the poison types. "Alright, guys. Get back here." Aednat did a backflip and Ace flapped his wings; hovering backwards, and then flipping backwards while rolling to the side to fly straight back to circle Ash's head again. "Storm, give 'em all you got!"

"P-p-p-p-iiiii—kkkk-aaaAAAAA-CCHUUUUUUUU!" Storm and the group of other Pikachu released their electricity in a mixed thunderbolt slash thundershock attack so powerful, they continued to zap the criminals and their Pokemon until Koffing's poison gases ignited, causing a huge explosion; creating a giant hole in the side of the Pokemon Center.

"I can't believe we got beat by a twerp and a whole bunch of rats!" Jessie screamed in frustration, black smudges coating her face.

"Well we were outnumbered the Pikachus..." the slightly effeminate male pointed out.

"Oh man, at least the kid had the magic touch. You guys couldn't wait five minutes until he was done?" Meowth groaned.

"WHAT?!" Both of the humans shouted at the cat in disbelief.

"I mean Team Rocket is blasting off!" The talking cat started quickly, trying to cover up his slip as they flew over the horizon, out into the unknown.

Officer Jenny had just so happened to arrive near the Center just in time to see them blasting off. Literally. "What did I just miss?" she asked herself, wasting no more time in getting into the remnants of the building.

**Okay, that's the end of Chapter Four (CerberusLabrat: DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG THAT WAS?! MY HANDS HURT FROM EDITING IT!) (LunaCatShadow *blush* yeah I got little care way)We hope you enjoy it. Now don't forget to help us choose more Pokemon for Ash, Delia, Misty, and Brock.**

**We also still need help choosing a Shiny! So go suggestions!**

**Please review and ask questions, cast your votes, etc.**

**Ash's Team:**

**Pikachu AKA Storm**

**Magikarp (*) AKA Bulma**

**Spearow AKA Ace**

**Nidoran (F) AKA Aednat**

**Delia:**

**Nidoran (F) AKA Riney**

**Misty:**

**Goldeen**

**Staryu**

**Starmie**

**Shellder**


	5. Chapter 5

**Viridian Forest**

**Here we go, another chapter!**

**YAY! Another chapter!**

**First I want to thank my awesome, cool, and fantastic beta reader. Who will hopefully not be mad at me for writing another long chapter...(drum roll please)**

**My very forgiving beta read, CerberusLabrat! Who helps make these fanfictions possible.**

**We also want to thank all of the people who take the time to review, going from 14 to 35 reviews (at the time of writing) is awesome! Also a thank you to all those people who favorite us and follow the story. We are almost at 80 (again, at the time of writing) and might be even higher by the time this chapter actually gets posted.**

**Great news! We also have our first flame! Thank you, Thorndsword;**

_**Not interested. First red flag was Ash having no control over his temper. Second was you using the word crap in a story. I haven't said that since the 1st grade, and I don't intend to read it either. Third and final red flag was your terrible nicknames. Sorry, but I'm off to read something else.**_

**(CerberusLabrat: Even though he probably won't even bother to read this; for one, Ash's ten. Have you seen the anime? Ash didn't have control over his temper. Nobody did. As for crap, look at the rating of the story. Just look at it. Maybe you were cursing like a sailor at six, but the rest of us are civilized people. As for the nicknames, to each their own. I don't agree with LCS' nicknames either in a few cases, but they don't really matter in the long run, now do they? I'm the beta reader. I read and edit her chapters as she sends them to me. Just do what I do; place your own nickname in the place of the one she picked. Noooot that hard bro.)**

**LunaCatShadow: Let's give this person a round of applause for not only taking five minutes of his time to read only _one _chapter of the story, but deciding to be an ass about it and leave this lovely comment. Glad I wasted your time.**

**Now that all that's out of the way, questions time!**

**Legend3881: Ash will catch a wide range of Pokemon, yeah, some will be uncommon as well as common. It's just what will work with Ash for the moment. I like suggestions because it helps us think of using Pokemon we haven't seen before. As far as region, I'm open to all of them.**

**Jezzatko: I know Delia is a little OOC but I'm trying to develop her character a little bit; because of her back ground you wouldn't think she was such an airhead and the way she acted drove me crazy. Plus what kind of mother lets her son travel like he first started? Oh yeah your Pikachu doesn't like you and keeps shocking you. Here's some rubber gloves and some rope, Good luck! Yeah, no. Who does that?**

**DarkWings112: Yes, Ash will encounter the legendaries and will start to develop Aura.**

**Vuurvlieg: Yes, Ash will stop Team Rocket's plot but they will start being interested in him after a while. As for Meowth, he will seek Ash's 'magic fingers' but then he'll turn back to Team Rocket. Meowth will start being caught between a rock and a hard place because he'll care for Ash, but at the same time, miss Giovanni.**

**Guest: I'm glad you like Misty's development. I honestly didn't care for her in the beginning but she started to be okay at the end. So I'm trying to make her into more of a sister figure. So she'll still pick on Ash at times, but she'll be very protective of him as well. Plus she'll be a better water trainer and help Ash more instead of just bringing him down.**

**Black: Legendary's are undecided for right now. I don't mind Ash catching one or two but I don't want it to happen too soon. The one I have in mind is Mewtwo because I think he could use the love but, as I said, not sure how I will add him in yet. **

**Okay, now that that's done. On to the story...and the first part of this that most of you are probably going to bother reading. Woo!**

Viridian Pokemon Center

We find our hero, Ash Ketchum, with his Pokemon, finishing up their morning routine; it was still early, Ash having woken up at the crack of dawn and then proceeding along their roughly hour long morning routine. He was about to head inside to feed himself and his Pokemon when a scream caught his attention.

Of course, as soon as they heard this, Ash and his Pokemon took off running...and/or flying, in Ace's case, towards the origin of the scream, when they got there, they saw their new friend, Misty, standing over a pile of rocks from the damaged Pokemon Center.

"Misty? What's wrong?" Ash questioned in concern.

"My bike is crushed!" Was the hysterical answer.

Looking closer the young trainer could see pieces of said bike unerneath the rubble. Aednat had skittered up and was now sniffing at the bike, while Ace just started snickering; he didn't care for the loud orange haired girl. When Storm heard this snickering, of course, the little yellow mouse turned to glare at the brick-colored bird.

"I guess this must have happened when Team Rocket attacked last night." The young trainer mused.

Misty was quiet for a long moment as she thought about the attack, and then started to put two and two together. "This is your fault!" She had turned at this point, thrusting an accusing finger in Ash's direction.

"Me?" The trainer and all his Pokemon, minus Bulma, jumped and looked shocked...Or in Ace's case, instantly annoyed.

Glaring hard at the boy with fire in her eyes, Misty continued her accusation. "Yes, you. If it wasn't for you my bike wouldn't even be in this mess!"

"But it was Team Rocket who caused the mess in the first place..." Ash pointed out, still confused as to how he was to blame. Aednat and Storm both nodded, blinking in confusion, while Ace was...well...still annoyed. And about an ounce of self-control away from just flying over and pecking the orange-haired girl because of it.

Placing her hand on her hips Misty looked down angrily at him. "But it was you who blew them up!"

Ash rubbed the back of his head, a sweat drop appearing as he realized it _was_ him that ordered all the Pikachu to shock the evil group; Storm looked down in guilt because he was one of the ones contributing to the blast. Ace lost what little self-control he had and began to fly around Misty's head, squawking in anger; She should be grateful the idiots got blown up!

As for Aednat...well...She was puffing her chest out, looking utterly satisfied at the amount of the destruction she'd helped cause.

Before Ash knew it, somehow him and Misty were traveling together in Viridian Forest; he had no idea how it happened but the next thing he knew, Misty had decided she was going to follow him until he paid back her bike.

Which wouldn't be so bad if "Ahhh! There's another bug!" wasn't something his new traveling companion screamed every freakin' five minutes. A tick mark was beginning to build on Ash's head; that was the fifteenth time she'd screamed that, and with a glance down at his Pokedex, he was acutely aware they hadn't even been in the forest for an hour. _Make that every three minutes..._Ace, sporting an even bigger tick mark than his trainer, was tempted to go hunting for a Caterpie or a Weedle and proceed to just _drop it_ on Misty and hope she ran away.

"Misty, stop. You're going to scare all the Pokemon away..." Ash stated in his annoyance.

"I don't care! Just keep those nasty bugs away from me!"

"...What's wrong with bugs anyway?"

"They're creepy and disgusting!" Was the reply, as if it should have been obvious. Ash sighed as he realized he might not be able to catch a bug Pokemon any time soon.

Something green caught his eye; a Caterpie. _Maybe I can catch one! _He thought, grabbing an empty Pokeball off his belt.

Suddenly, Misty let out a horrifying scream as she spotted the Caterpie; and at the same time, it's attention was drawn to her. It spotted the orange-haired water trainer and made a beeline towards her, crawling along the ground and scaring the poor girl as it began to climb her leg...which was shaking like it was trying to withstand an earthquake.

"Ah! Get it off me!" Misty screamed, swinging her leg back and then kicking it forward, sending the Caterpie flying off somewhere into the bushes, and then she turned; taking off full speed in the opposite direction.

Ash watch this; his head falling down. He'd really wanted to catch that Caterpie. Storm patted his cheek from the position on his shoulder. "Pika..." It stated, as if telling Ash that everything was going to be okay; Aednat was rolling around on the ground laughing, and Ace...well. Ace quickly saw this as their chance to ditch the girl and took off from Ash's shoulder, grabbing the collar of Ash's jacket in his talons and trying to fly away from Misty as if he could carry Ash along with him, trying to convince Ash to _run_ as fast as he could, AWAY from Misty.

If you haven't realized by now, Ace _really_ didn't like Misty.

However, his escape attempt was ruined as he was hit with the force of a speeding freight train; blindsiding him and sending him tumbling to the ground with a loud squawk of surprise. The Pokemon that had attacked him was now flying over him in circles; and if a beak could show a cocky grin, then this particular brown and cream colored bird with a pink and yellow feathered plume was sporting one. "Pridg-pridg-priiddgeeeoootto!"

Once Ace got his bearings and realized what had happened, a tick mark appeared and he took off into the air. "You ready Ace?" Ash questioned, now in the zone; this was what he was talking about!

"Speeaaarooow!"

"Lets start with a quick attack!" Ace disappeared; moving too fast for the naked eye to follow, and suddenly re-appeared in front of Pidgeotto, knocking it back quite a bit considering the size difference; the sandy-colored bird seemed shocked at this, but quickly shook it's head and got back into action. It flapped it's wings, building the currents and moving the air around it as it unleashed a Gust attack; one that Ace was directly in the line of fire of and could not escape.

"Ace! Don't flap your wings so much! Let the Gust carry you and use your wings to help orient your body!"

The Brick-colored bird listened; instead of fighting the gust; he now just spread his wings out and surfed the wind currents. He was able to get out of it with ease after this; the Sandy colored bird of course, noticing this, and finding itself impressed.

"Okay, now use Tackle!" Ace sped towards Pidgeotto; the bird quickly turning to the side to dodge, and realized her mistake at the trainers next words.

"Alright, now grab Pidgeotto's wings!" The next thing the bird knew, Spearow's talons had clamped down hard on the roots of it's wings. Eyes widened in shock and panic.

"Now Peck the back of it's head!"

"Spearow!" Was the response before Ace's sharp beak slammed hard and repeatedly into the back of the bigger bird's head. Eliciting a cry of pain from the larger bird as it tried to fill the air with a sand attack to escape.

"Now screech as loud as you can and let go of Pidgeotto."

Ace stopped his pecking, letting out a mighty, ear-shattering war cry directly into Pidgeotto's ears, and then releasing the larger birds wings. The Pidgeotto cried in pain and fell to the ground.

When it hit the ground, it's eyes were already swirling in defeat; Seeing this, Ace let out a victory cheer and flew around the Pidgeotto's fallen form in celebration. He missed the Pokeball thrown at his defeated opponent as it got sucked in a red beam of light.

Ash smiled when the ball pinged, showing that Pidgeotto had been captured. He looked up to the sky, where Ace was swirling overhead. "Great job, Ace." The Spearow flew down, landing on Ash's shoulder, and rubbing his head against his trainer's as if to say 'thank you'.

Ash laughed, kneeling down to pick up the red and white spherical object on the ground. "Okay, lets meet our new teammate." Spearow nodded his head in agreement for a moment before he realized exactly what Ash had actually said. "Spearow?!"

"Yes, Ace. New teammate. Don't give me that look." Ash gave Ace a stern look of his own. "Pidgeotto will be a great addition to the team. You two can be good sparring partners and help each other train." Ace sighed in defeat, knowing he was right; but he couldn't help it. _He_ was Ash's flying Pokemon, and now he was going to have to share that title.

"Okay, come on out, Pidgeotto!" The bigger bird came out and looked around for a moment; when it's eyes landed on Ace it huffed at him and turned it's head. It saw a small blue Nidoran next and did a short flying hop over to her to size her up. Next was a little yellow Pikachu on her new trainers shoulder happily waving at it. Then it's eyes landed on it's new trainers face.

It studied the boy for a moment, his warm brown eyes staring at it as he smiled. The bird didn't even noticed that he was healing it with some potion spray until his hand opened up, holding some Oran berries. "Here, these should help your strength."

The bird happily chirped and started to eat the berries, deciding it liked it's new trainer; he was a smart battler and caring towards his Pokemon. Honestly it just wanted to battle the good for nothing Spearow, but in the end it had actually been the one defeated, but now, it had a new chance to become even stronger.

As these thoughts passed through it's mind and it ate the berries, Ash pulled out his Pokedex to scan his new friend.

_Pidgeotto, the Flying Bird Pokemon, it can render it's prey immobile by using well-developed claws._

_Type: Normal/Flying_

_Gender: Female_

_Ability: Tangle Feet_

_Attacks: Tackle, Gust, Sand Attack and Quick Attack_

Ash nodded, looking at this. "So you have some good long range attacks that can help out Ace, and he can you with some good close range attacks..."

After a moment of musing he bent down, looking at his new friend, and started to lightly rub her her head. She cooed as petted her. "Now what should I name you?" He looked at her, thinking while she stared back at him. Then it hit him. "How about Nika? After Nike, the winged goddess of victory in Greek Mythology?"

The newly named bird nodded her agreement; she may have lost her battle with Ace, but in the end losing was probably even a greater victory for her: If she'd won, she might not have been captured by this trainer, and she wouldn't have this opportunity to grow even stronger.

-With Misty-

Meanwhile, after Misty had finally gotten away from that disgusting bug Pokemon, she found herself at a pond. Leaning down, she tried to catch her breath from the running. "I...really...hate...Bugs!" He forced out between gasps of breath as she let herself slide to the ground.

She didn't notice a Pokemon was even near her until she felt a gentle stream of water hit her. She opened her eyes and spotted quite possibly the cutest Pokemon she'd ever seen. It was blue, with a yellow tip on it's head that looked like a hat, with big, black eyes; two pink spots on it's cheeks looking like a blush. It was round, with four skinny legs on which it was standing on top of the water.

"Was that you?" The little blue Pokemon nodded it's head up and down at the question. "Sur-sk-iiiit." It blew a series of small bubbles into the air and then started to skate around them on top of the water.

The water trainer couldn't believe her eyes; having never seen such a cute water Pokemon before. "Aw, you're so cute..." It surprised her after she said this; jumping off the water into the air, clearing a good ten feet with the jump and landing square on her shoulder; it started to snuggle her face.

She laughed at the cute little thing. "I've never seen a Pokemon like you before."

The Pokemon hopped off her shoulder then, onto her lap, and pointed with one of it's skinny legs to a Pokeball on her belt.

Misty could hardly believe it; she'd only seen this thing for about thirty seconds and was it already asking what she thought it was asking? "You want to come with me?" The cute little thing nodded it's head up and down again.

She smiled widely, her eyes shining. "Okay!" Quickly, she tapped the water Pokemon with the Pokeball it had pointed at. It immediately got sucked in and the ball didn't even shake; instantly dinging to signify the capture.

Misty happily jumped up and down in the air. "Yes! Even in this forest full of creepy bug Pokemon I caught a cute water Pokemon! Come out, Cutey!"

"Sur-sk-iiit." It exclaimed as it quickly hopped, dashed, and jumped it's way up her body until it was resting on top of her hair. As it climbed up, Misty couldn't help but notice it had a nice smell to it as well. She really was lucky. "I might not know much about you, but Ash's Pokedex should know." She blinked at that, realizing Ash wasn't around. Quickly she turned around to try and find him.

"As—AAH!" She screamed, finding herself face-to-business end of a sharp sword. She saw a man in a Samurai costume with a net hooked to his back, but holding a katana, the pointed end of his sword mere inches from his face. She gulped.

"Greetings oh shrieking maiden, Are you by chance the Pokemon trainer that comes from Pallet?" Misty frantically shook her head no. "No, that's not me."

The Samurai looked down and sighed. "Alas, my search continues..." He responded, twirling his sword and sheathing it back in it's scabbard. He turned and started to walk off. "What is taking so long to find this trainer? Surely he hasn't passed me already. The strong trainer with the many maidens said he was the weakest of all of them..." His musing was starting to trail off as he walked further and further away, soon he was far enough away that Misty couldn't hear him even if he was still talking.

The orange-haired girl followed him with her eyes until he was gone and then dropped onto her knees. She was confused and nervous. "What a weird kid. I wonder why how would be looking for a Pokemon trainer from...Wait! That's Ash!" She realized this with a start and she jumped, running back towards where Ash was with new unknown Pokemon holding on tightly to her side-facing ponytail.

Ash was looking around the forest when, as it seemed was becoming a standard thing today, he heard a cry. He ran ahead once again towards the source of the noise and found a green creature with sword like hands being attacked by a swarm of Beedrill. His eyes widened as he saw the Pokemon fall to it's knees, it's body turning black and purple with poison as it filled it's body.

Ash didn't waste any time. "Storm, hit all those Beedrill with Thunderbolt!" The yellow mouse leapt into the air off of his trainer's shoulder, red cheeks sparing with electricity. "Pikaaaaa-chuuuu!" he cried out as a yellow bolt of electricity shot both directions from his body; one down towards the ground, scorching the grass beneath him, the other arching towards the entire group of Beedrill. They knew when they were defeated; that being when most of them were twinging in pain and twitching from the electric shocks, covered in black scorch marks, and subsequently flew off.

Once again, wasting little time, Ash ran over to the Pokemon that remained as it cried in pain. "Scyther!" It didn't take long to notice the scorch marks and realize that not only was the poor thing really weak and poisoned, but it had been caught in Storm's thunderbolt as well.

"Look, I know you're in pain right now, but you've got to trust me." Scyther growled, but nodded his head in understanding. Ash quickly looked through all the pockets in his jacket for something.

As he was doing this, he heard a voice. "Would you happen to be a trainer from Pallet Town?"

"Yes." Ash replied automatically, not even realizing he'd done so as he sprayed a potion on Scyther to give the mantis some strength back. Hopefully enough it would be able to fight the poison.

"I have found you at last!" The Samurai exclaimed, drawing out his sword. The young trainer heard his traveling companion yell out. "Ash!" This caused him to turn around; just as the Samurai almost struck him with his sword. Ash yelped when the so called Samurai fell to the ground.

Looking up he found the orange-haired traveling companion with a giant mallet in her hands and glaring down at the fallen sword kid. "How you like getting attacked by a weapon you wanna be Samurai?! Ash, are you okay?" Ace blinked at this, tilting his head; maybe the girl wasn't so bad to have around.

Ash sighed in relief but looked to the injured Pokemon. "I'm okay, but Scyther looks pretty bad." As if to prove his point, the mantis Pokemon groaned in pain.

"I am no wannabe Samurai." The Samurai corrected indignantly, earning a growl from Misty and a glare.

"Who are you then?!"

The kid jumped up and dusted himself off. "I am Samurai! I am fearless and a strong warrior. I have been searching the forest for you, Pallet Town trainer." He said this as he sheathed his sword back in it's scabbard. Ash didn't even lift his head as searched for more healing supplies to help Scyther.

"Why me?" The Samurai smirked in response and held up a Pokeball. "A Pokemon match. Let us see who triumphs." Ash's response was to raise his head and stare at the Samurai for a moment before responding. "No. Scyther is really hurt."

The kid looked deeply offended. "How dare you turn down my challenge!"

Ash sighed and focused a glare on the kid. "Do you not see the condition this Scyther is in?" he asked as he fed him some Pecha Berries.

"Don't blame me because you can't take care of your Pokemon. The strong trainer with the many maidens was right. You are dimwitted and clumsy."

That...was a mistake. Every Pokemon present; Aednat the Nidoran, Storm the Pikachu, Ace the Spearow, even Nika the Pidgeotto, all twitched and looked angrily at the so-called warrior; Nika hadn't even been with Ash for an hour yet and she already knew that everything the Samurai was saying was a lie.

The injured Scyther's eyes widened as it looked at the young trainer that was healing him, then narrowing as they turned to the 'Samurai'. He was no true Samurai. The Scyther was confused, however, that Ash didn't even seem fazed by the insult, instead, looking around in his jacket again, and pulling out a light pink Pokeball with a yellow marking on it. "This is a-" Before Ash could even state his intention, the Scyther tapped himself against the ball, sucking himself into it in a red beam of energy and a click. "-Heal Ball."

Ash's eyes widened as he looked down at the healing Pokeball. It didn't shake in the slightest, and he'd never even had a chance to finish what he was going to say.

The so-called Samurai looked surprised. "Are you telling me you just now caught Scyther?!" Ash was still staring down at the Heal Ball in his had. "This...Scyther...was attacked by some Beedrill and was injured really bad. I just wanted to help him."

"I see you have a good heart, but you're a weak trainer. Hand Scyther over. That Pokemon will be too hard for you to handle." The so-called warrior held his out, obviously expecting Ash to just hand the Pokeball over.

Ash glared at the Samurai, keeping his anger under a cool curtain of control. "You know nothing about me, and you're an insult to any real Samurai anywhere. You have no honor. Don't judge me. Ever. You want a battle? Bring it."

Misty's eyes narrowed and she looked at the Samurai as she walked between the two of them in the center,, holding her hands up in the air as the little blue and yellow Pokemon in her hair, it's head turned to the Samurai, held up two of his blue legs, turned one of them to the side, and then bent the other one underneath and stuck it towards the air, giving him as good of an 'up yours' sign as the little blue creature without fingers possibly could.

Samurai did a double take at that, rubbing his eyes in disbelief; did he really just get flipped off by a Pokemon?

"I'll referee. This is a two on two match. First trainer to lose both Pokemon loses."

Ash turned to the Samurai and called out to one of his Pokemon. "Aednat, you ready to teach this kid a lesson?" The blue rodent shot into action, running over in front of Ash, her red eyes glowing brightly with a burning passion in them. "Nido!"

"Ah! Nidoran, such a common and weak Pokemon. They are all shy and such weak fighters." The Samurai retorted.

Ash just snorted in amusement. "You haven't met Aednat." Said Nidoran was growling, utterly pissed off at the 'Samurai''s judgment of her. If her eyes could burn any brighter than they were before, they were doing so now.

The Samurai just looked at them oddly and rolled his eyes. "Whatever makes you happy. I will still win at the end. Let's go with this! Pinsir! Assume battle mode!" Out popped a Pinsir; a brown and quite ugly beetle like Pokemon with spiky horns atop it's head.

Ash had a permanent smirk on his face as the Samurai continued to underestimate his little fire. "Aednat, use Quick Attack, then jump on Pinsir, bite down on it, and don't let go." The blue rodent turned into a blur across the battlefield, disappearing into said blur only to reappear on top of Pinsir, as she was instructed, she bit down hard on the Pokemon and didn't let go. The attack on Pinsir was effective and no matter what it did, the Nidoran just would not let go. "Now hit it with fury swipes."

At that order, Aednat bit down _even harder _into Pinsir's body and began to scratch violently at it's skin with her front claws. Pinsir immediately cried out it's name in pain and it didn't take long under the onslaught for it collapse backwards; fainting and ending the match.

"Pinsir!" The Samurai yelled in concern.

"Pinsir is unable to battle. The winner of this round is Ash and his Nidoran, Aednat." Misty stated, matter-of-factly, and raised up her arm that was on Ash's side of the battlefield.

"Very good novice. You caught me off guard. Let's see how your match goes with my next Pokemon!" The Samurai returned Pinsir, and proceeded to grab his other Pokeball. "Pokeball, go!" Out popped...

...A Metapod.

Ash's jaw dropped to the ground in disbelief. He dared to judge _Aednat_ for being weak, while having a _Metapod_?

"Lets see you win a match with my Metapod." The Samurai gloated, putting his hands on his hips.

Ash glared coldly at the so-called warred and then looked down at his poisonous blue rodent. "Aednat, use Poison Sting."

The Nidoran rushed forward and slammed her horns into the Metapod. "Harden!" The Samurai called, and the Metapod did so...but it was too late, the poison having already hit; the Metapod crying out in pain as it felt the poison take effect.

"Alright, Aednat, I want you to Double Kick it into the air." Aednat did a backflip, launching her self away from the Metapod and landing on all fours on the ground, then rushed back towards it, pulling herself backwards and sending both hind legs forward with great force, one kick, and then a second, both launching the cocoon into the air.

"Harden!" The Metapod glowed as it...hardened again.

"Now, Aednat, Quick Attack to get above it, and then Double Kick it back into the ground as hard as you can."

The blue rodent flashed into the air above the Metapod and slammed her feet into it again, forcing it back down towards the ground with all her strength.

"Harden!"

Aednat did so and Metapod looked dazed when it flashed again, hardened once more, just before it slammed into the ground. Eyes still wide open.

"As you can see young trainer, your little Nidoran can not hurt my-Metapod!"

His gloat was cut off by his cocoon Pokemon fainting, causing the Samurai to cry out in concern.

"Metapod is unable to battle, the winner is Ash and Aednat." Misty stated, smiling slightly as the Samurai still looked shocked. Looking on the scene wide-eyed. "But how?"

Ash just smirked, kneeling down. "Good job, Aednat." He praised as he reached out to pet her, checking for any injuries; not that he needed to, she didn't even get hit once.

"I can't believe I lost. I thought the trainer with the many Maidens said you were a weak trainer."

"That's why I said you were no true Samurai." Ash replied, causing the Samurai to look up at him.

"I don't know much about Samurai, and I'm still learning to be a trainer, but what I can tell you from the stories my mom used to read me, is that a true warrior will fight for what's right, the help the weak before themselves. They are not afraid to fight and they never judge an opponent before a fight. Just because someone says that a person is weak or they seem weak at the beginning doesn't mean they are. Never judge a book by it's cover and your true strength is within you."

The Samurai's eyes widened as the sun hit behind him. He was not just looking at a true warrior, but on what he could tell would be a future hero. Bowing his head, he held his sword out in front of him, still sheathed within it's scabbard. "You are right, young warrior. And it is a shame that I dare to call myself a Samurai. Today you have proven which one of us is a novice, and which one is a trainer. I have disgraced myself. I hope some day that I can be a true Samurai, but until then I present you my sword. Let it help you protect the weak."

With that, the Samurai left his sword in Ash's hands. The young trainer looked down at the sword, and then looked back up to where the Samurai had been before realizing he had disappeared.

"Uh...What just happened?" Ash blinked.

Misty shook her head. "I have no idea. But why do I have the feeling that traveling with you, nothing will ever be normal again?"

Ash waved his hand dismissively. "Ah, normal is boring." He scoffed, causing the pair to share a laugh.

"Oh, by the way, how far do you think we are to the next town? We should get that Scyther to the Pokemon Center to heal up."

"You mean Blade? Don't worry, I caught him with a Heal Ball so he should be healed up nicely by now, see for yourself." Ash shrugged, pulling out the Heal Ball and releasing his new Scyther.

"Scyyyther!" Blade cried out as it popped out of the Heal Ball; feeling refreshed and healthy.

Misty's eyes widened. "I forgot that it was a huge bug Pokemon with sharp blades for hands!" She screamed. The blue Pokemon on her head looked a little offended but shrugged it's arm like things. It would be scared of Scyther too.

"Scyther?" The mantis tilted it's head, looking at the orange-haired girl in curiosity and starting to walk a little closer to her.

"Aaaah!"

Ace, Aednat, Storm, Nika, and Ash all sweat dropped. "Well...at least she hasn't run off yet?" He chuckled, trying to stay positive.

**And there we go, the end of Chapter 5**

**Hope you enjoyed reading, and don't forget to review! We still need help choosing more Pokemon for Ash, Delia, Misty, and Brock.**

**We also have the results for the Top 4 Shiny!**

**They are:**

**Eevee (CerberusLabrat likes this)**

**Vulpix**

**Ponyta**

**Charmander**

**So vote for your favorite and ask any questions when you put your awesome reviews in this little review box down here at the bottom of the screen. Revieeeeewww. You knoooow you waaant tooo.**

**Ash's Team:**

**Storm – Pikachu**

**Bulma – Magikarp**

**Ace – Spearow**

**Aednat – Nidoran (F)**

**Nika – Pidgeotto**

**Blade – Scyther**

**Delia:**

**Riney – Nidoran (F)**

**Misty:**

**Goldeen**

**Staryu**

**Starmie**

**Shellder**

**Surskit**


	6. Chapter 6

**First Gym Part One**

**Yay, more chapters!**

**I can't believe all the favorites and follows we got, sitting at over a hundred right now.**

**Annnd 58 reviews! Which to us, are even better! Thanks for the feedback.**

**Now, this story wouldn't be any good without CerberusLabrat, the most awesome beta reader ever! Thank you, CerberusLabrat, you rock! (CL: No, I don't. Shush. XP)**

**I also want to give a personal shout out to Lightenblade49 who helped me spit ball ideas back and forth.**

**Questions time!**

**Arrow Riddari – Thanks for stopping me from turning Ash into a Gary-Stu. You made me stop and think on how Ash will get stronger, but also who Ash should lose to eventually. I agree on not making Ash unstoppable, the story would get boring if things were too easy for him. Do like your Pokemon suggestions but I think Lucario will be Ash's best choice of all the Pokemon you suggested because he will have Aura and I think Lucario would be the best Pokemon to help him out.**

**Random bug – Yes, Ash will get the three Kanto starters, I just can't picture him without them, but I decided that Charmander will be one of Ash's shinies.**

**Lightenblade49 – No, Ash will not be able to carry more than six Pokemon right now, seeing as he's a beginning trainer, so he has to have a set limit. As far as transferring Pokemon, I'm not quite sure if I should do that because it will make it too easy for Ash if he can transfer Pokemon that easily. But I do like the idea of Delia getting more involved with his Pokemon.**

**Kyunaru – No, Ash won't leave Pidgeotto behind because he caught the Spearow that was mad at him. Also can't believe I spelled Orange wrong (CL: That might have been my bad for not catching it.)**

**HarbingerLady – Yes, Misty hates bugs, but as of right now she doesn't know Surskit is a bug Pokemon, one that's half water too, I might add. You have to read to see how this is going to work out. Also want to point out to all readers; has anyone ever seen Misty with her own Pokedex?**

**Stallion6 of Deviatart – Ash will catch an Eevee and I have a poll up on what it's evolution will be. (CL: Es-pe-on! Es-pe-on! Es-pe-on!)**

**Saiyan-Styles – First, love your username. Just had to say that. And I like the Larvesta but I think it's best to catch in the Safari zone, but have to see what happens as the story progresses. (CL: I think it's kind of early to start thinking of things outside of the original 250 meself. )**

**Roxel – I want to thank you, because you helped my decision on shinies.**

**Mmat – Who Ash ends up with? I'm not sure if you mean girl or Pokemon, but as for girls, right now Ash is too young and his head is way up in the clouds. But that doesn't mean that there are no romances. There are going to be a few girls that will be interested in Ash romantically and everyone will see it but Ash, being a poor, naïve little kid. Ash is going to have some of the Pokemon from the show. (CL: I, personally, am hoping for a Latias romance. *crosses fingers*)**

**Okay, now that all that's out of the way, Onto let story!**

**First Gym (Part Uno)**

Today, we find our heroes finally emerging from a thick forest. One looking quite tired, but at the same time, very happy to finally see Pewter City; now he could get his Pokemon checked up on at the Pokemon Center, and he could call his mom, of course...Sheesh, for some reason he just felt like a mama's boy at times. He loved training with his Pokemon, and he loved the forest. But he'd rather stay close to a Pokemon Center so he could make sure his Pokemon were at full health.

His pokemon that were out looked happy to see the city as well. Aednat was a little blue ball of jumping Nidoran; all cheery at the sight of the city. Where she got her energy was anyone's guess. Ace and Nika, the two flying types, were hovering on either side of their trainer; Ace swooped down, landing on Ash's shoulder, and looked smug towards his Pidgeotto counterpart; he was small enough to ride on Ash's shoulder, and he was cocky about it. Nika's response was to just squawk at the Spearow, most likely calling him a tiny bird again, before swooping down to join him by landing on Ash's backpack; looking smug towards the smaller bird. A tick-mark appeared on Ace's head and he screeched at whatever she'd said. On the other shoulder, sat the young trainers first Pokemon; the yellow rodent otherwise known as Storm, and the self-appointed leader of Ash's Pokemon group, since he was the first. The Pikachu sighed, he was getting tired of breaking up the petty squabbles of the two birdbrains. He growled in their general direction threateningly, electrical sparks flying from the sacs on his cheeks. The two birds froze; knowing that Storm wouldn't hesitate to shock them.

This, of course, caused the mouse to nod in satisfaction; they were learning! Further on Ash's left side...the one Pikachu was riding on, opposite to Aednat, was Blade the Scyther. The newest addition to Ash's team. He was always one step behind Ash, for some strange reason having chosen to always have his trainer in front of him.

On the other side of Aednat, as far away from Scyther as she could get...was Ash's friend Misty, with her new Pokemon, 'Cutey', as she was calling it, since they had no idea what it's name was. Even it calling out the name of it's species didn't help, for some reason none of the syllables seemed to stand out with the way it talked. For some reason, this Pokemon wasn't registered in the Kanto region, so they were going to ask Professor Oak if he could update Ash's Pokedex with the proper information.

The orange-haired girl stumbled towards a rock and sat herself down on top of it with a deep breath and a sigh of relief. "We finally made it out of that crazy forest."

"Yeah, it has been a while. Where's the Pokemon Center?" Ash questioned as he started to look through the map that was loaded onto Dexter.

"Pika." Storm nodded in agreement.

"This city is known for it's rocks." A man's voice cut in to the unanimous call of relief; causing all those present to jump in the air in surprise at the sudden voice. They all looked to the side as one giant group; probably looking a bit on the creepy side with eight heads all turning as one to see a man with a beard and a big red hat covering his eyes; it was almost impossible to see his face.

"Who are you?" Ash questioned, blinking; how had they not noticed this guy?

"The name's Flint. I sell rocks here as Pewter City souvenirs." The answer was calm, but a moment later, he opened his eyes and looked to the orange haired girl. "And you, young lady, are sitting on my merchandise."

Misty quickly jumped off of the rock as if it were smoldering lava. "Oh. Um...I'm sorry...I didn't know." She apologized, a blush covering her face as she rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. The little blue Pokemon with a yellow 'hat', Surskit (though they weren't aware of this yet), who was resting on her head, tilted it's head to the side, not fully understanding why someone would sell...rocks.

The man snorted in response. "It's okay, but you still owe me three Pokedollars for resting on my rock."

Misty growled in mild frustration when Ash's voice intruded.

"We're sorry to bother you, we're just going to head to the Pokemon Center. All my Pokemon are tired...and so are we." Ash stated, handing the man a twenty dollar bill. "We best be going."

"Huh, yeah. No problem." Flint replied distractedly, simply staring at the hand that now held almost seven times what he'd asked for and not expected to get. Ash smiled, and walked away; Misty screaming at him the whole way for giving the guy money. The strange dumb look broke on Flint's face as he looked down, and his eyes widened; on one of his rocks was a few neatly packed sandwiches with some fruit on the side. He laughed softly. "Nice kid...Dumb as hell though."

-At the Pokemon Center-

At the Pokemon Center, Ash handed all five of his Pokeballs, plus Storm, to the Nurse Joy behind the counter.

"I'll have your Pokemon healed in no time." The nurse assured as she turned to walk away.

Misty, at this time, was walking around; she couldn't wait to see what her new Pokemon was, but Ash insisted she wait until all their Pokemon were healed.

In the meantime, Ash decided to call his mom and check up on her.

"Hello, Ketchum residence." Ash smiled at the sound of her voice.

"Hey mom, it's me." The screen almost instantly lit up to show the warmly smiling face of Delia Ketchum, a sight hat made Ash feel happy.

"Oh honey, it's so good to see you. I take it you made it to Pewter City fine?"

"Yep, caught two more Pokemon and fought my first official battle!"

"That's great! How'd it go?"

"He didn't stand a chance against Aednat." Ash chuckled in pride at his little powerhouse of a Nidoran.

"Nido-nido." And out of nowhere; Aednat's sister! Riney had jumped up into Delia's lap and was now in front of the screen.

"Oh, hey Riney." On closer inspection, the older Nidoran had a yellow and pink ribbon tied around her neck like a collar.

Delia smiled at her Pokemon and started to rub it's head. "Little Riney here is doing just fine. Although she does still miss her little sister...but she does enjoy it here! Right, my little Riney?"

"Nidoran." Riney replied, nodding her head happily.

"That's good to hear." Ash replied, glad he'd sent Aednat's sister over to his mom; it avoided permanently breaking up the family the two Nidoran had left, it made his mom happy, it gave Riney something to do besides chase after her sister and fight for her survival...and it left Aednat able to kick as much rear end as she felt comfortable doing...which was saying something.

A ding was heard, interrupting his thoughts. "Oh, honey. That's the pie. I have to go."

"That's alright mom, Love you." Ash answered, suddenly wishing he was at home to have a piece of this mystical pie. His mother's home cooking. Hard to believe it had almost been a week without it already.

"Love you too. Be safe and don't forget to change your you-know-what's every day!"

"Mom!" Ash cried indignantly with a blush. "Bye honey." He was cut off by his mother's parting words, the darkening of the screen, and the sudden click as the line hung up.

After this, Ash made the quick call to Professor Oak to get his Pokedex updated. It was a rather simple process that took a grand total of about forty-five seconds from start to finish, at which point the Professor hung up on him; leaving Ash in a mild state of confusion; Exactly what could cause the Professor to _not _be curious about new Pokemon?

"Excuse me, young man; would you happen to be Ash Ketchum?" Nurse Joy asked, walking up to him.

"Yes, I am. Are my Pokemon okay?" He asked, a worried look on his face. Sure, all his Pokemon, with the exception of Bulma, had walked or flown alongside him the entire way into Pewter City without looking any worse for the wear, but still.

Before he could further debate these thoughts, the next thing he knew he had his arms full of Nurse Joy. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." She kept repeating, holding him tight with tears rolling out of her eyes.

The kid couldn't help but blink in confusion and mild worry, wondering exactly why she was bawling her eyes out in his arms; he started to rub her back.

After a few more moments she backed away a little, deep sapphire blues staring into chocolate brown with her arms still wrapped around his shoulders. "Sorry...I just wanted to thank you for saving my sister from Team Rocket."

Ash nodded, realizing now what was going on. "Oh. That. Okay, but you should be thanking my Pokemon and her Pikachu power gang. They did all the work."

The nurse held a hand over her mouth and giggled. "My sister is right, you really do love Pokemon. Are you planning to be a Pokemon Master?" She questioned.

"Of course...It's always been a dream of mine." Ash admitted.

"Then you might want to check out that poster right over there."

The raven haired kid turned around to see a poster with eight Kanto Gym Badges and a hand holding a Pokeball. The title reading '_**Pokemon League Challenge!**_'

"Wow, the Indigo League! Of course I'm going to enter it." His reaction was nothing short of eager.

"You do realize that's going to be a tough challenge. You have to beat eight gym badges to win." Misty piped in.

He turned to give her a dry look and a goofy grin. "Of course I know that, that's the fun part! Battle different gym leaders, meet new friends, learn and get a little stronger every day...That's what it takes to be a Pokemon Master."

Misty shook her head. "Gym leaders are different from your everyday Pokemon Trainer. They're much tougher, their rules are different."

"So? That's what it means to be a Pokemon Trainer. You've got to start somewhere." Ash answered with a shrug, not really caring that it was going to be tough. If it was easy...what was the point?

There was a laugh behind them. "Don't tell me that you plan on challenging Brock, the Pewter City gym leader?" Flint asked, walking towards them.

Ash's chocolate browns were glinting in excitement and he couldn't help the smile that broke across his face at the mere mention of the gym battle. "Of course I do. All I need to do is train and think of a good strategy."

Flint looked at the kid, completely unimpressed. He even started laughing again. "You? Beat him? Ha!"

Ash sighed and looked down. Why did everyone always doubt him and look down on him? Even Misty didn't think he could win and she'd seen him in action!

When he looked up to respond to Flint the words were frozen in his mouth when an orange fish flew into Flint's face, smacking into it and then flipping backwards into a bucket of water that was being held at the end of a mantis blade.

Flint looked shocked, and under any other circumstance, Ash would have burst out in laughter, but right now, all he could do was look around. He saw all six of his Pokemon: Storm and Aednat running in front of him, Ace and Nika swooping in to hover over each shoulder, Blade standing behind and beside him with Bulma in a bucket of water hanging from one of his arms.

All of them sensed that he was upset and ran towards him; Blade keeping his distance because...well..._blade_. But all the others flocking to him; Storm and Aednat each hugging a leg, Ace and Nika each landing on a shoulder, and Bulma taking the initiative to jump out of the bucket once more and into her trainers arms.

Ash just laughed, all his worries gone at the belief his friends showed towards him. "With these guys, I know I can beat Brock."

-Random Training Area-

All of Ash's Pokemon were out while he browsed through his Pokedex, trying to figure out how exactly he was going to battle against the Pewter City gym leader. Mist was beside him with her blue little cutey on her head.

She sighed. "Ash, the Pewter Gym is a rock gym. Meaning he uses Rock Pokemon. Who's primary weakness is water. I use Water Pokemon. Just use mine..." She tried to convince him one last time.

"Misty, I appreciate that you're willing to loan me your Pokemon, but I need to do these on my own. I won't get anywhere as a trainer if I rely on other peoples Pokemon instead of training my own. This is my team and we will win." Ash replied, his eyes never trailing away from the screen.

-Auto Translate, I choose you!-

In front of the two humans, all six of Ash's Pokemon were chatting amongst themselves.

Bulma the Magikarp growled, splashing angrily in the water. "I want to fight! I'm a water Pokemon so I should FIGHT THIS FREAKIN ROCK GYM!"

"Truth you speak, yes. But only move in water you do." Blade answered from his position, sitting cross legged in front of Bulma.

The Magikarp growled against and jumped as high in the air out of her little pool of water as she could, and came down, slamming her tail as hard as she could into the water to splash the smartass Scyther. Who wasted no time jumping out of the way, using his wings to assist, only to return to the exact same spot once the water had fallen.

"Upset, she is." The Scyther remarked with a blink as he looked at the temperamental fish. Honestly, the temper was something that Bulma had only developed since Ash had caught her and trained her to be more useful than a bowling ball.

"Yeah. And she's angry too." Aednat felt the need to take on the role of Captain Obvious, at this point.

Storm was busy rubbing his cheeks, flattening his ears to his head and shaking it back and forth, trying to clear it out.

"Well, he's going to need strength. Which I'm sure the little bird over here doesn't have." Nika quipped, pointing her wing towards the other bird in the group. The brick-colored beak Pokemon known as Ace.

Tick marks. So many tick marks. "_I am not little!" _He squawked at her, angrily.

Nika giggled. "Well, at least I'm not slow, thunder thighs."

"What?!" Ace growled, eyes sparking. "You're so big you can't even move around easy. Your pig thighs get in the way." He shot back, quite a lame retort, all things considered, but he snickered nonetheless at his own insult.

"Why you little...!"

"Again with the little!"

"That's what you are, little!"

"Pig thigh!"

"Stop that you little..."

"Pig thigh, pig thigh!"

"Little bird."

"Fat pig thigh!"

"Baby little."

"Atrociously fat pig thigh."

"Shut the hell up!" Storm screamed in frustration, jumping into the air and letting loose with all of his annoyance on the two birds.

"Shocking the lovebirds, hmm?" Asked Blade as the two fell and hit the ground with a thud.

"With a thunderbolt." Aednat clarified.

"At this rate, we're all going to be immune to electricity sooner or later." Bulma continued as she watched both birds stumble to their feet dazedly and shake the static away, Nika squawking lightly in pain as her wing brushed against Ace's and a static shock traveled between them.

"Okay, listen up. We're going to be facing our first Gym Battle here, so we need to train hard." Storm interrupted with authority, looking around at the small training area Ash had picked out, just outside of the city limits. "I'm not quite sure how we're going to do it, but Ash is counting on us, he believes in us, so we're not going to let him down, right?"

"Right!" Came the responding chorus of 'Nido''Scyth!''Karp!''Speaaaar!' and 'Prriiiiddge!'

-Auto-Translate, return!-

"I got it!" Ash shouted out, jumping into the air, and, in doing so, almost causing Misty to jump out of her own skin.

She almost instantly had her hand over her heart, as if it would slow down her jump-started heart, as she took deep breaths in an attempt to calm it down. "What are you talking about?"

"I know how to beat Brock." All six Pokemon heard this, and walked (in the case of Aednat and Storm), flew (in the case of Blade, Ace, and Nika), or swam (Bulma) over to him to listen to this plan of his.

"You do?" Misty questioned, tilting her head to the side, honestly curious.

Grinning stupidly, he nodded his head at her and turned his attention towards his rag-tag team of Pokemon.

"Okay guys, I have a plan. Now, none of you really have the type advantage against rock Pokemon..." at this, all of them looked down, and Bulma sunk further into the water. _Sorry Bulma, but you don't know any water attacks..._ Ash thought to himself, before continuing on.

"However, that doesn't matter because I have a plan to turn things in our favor!" All six heads turned upwards, eager to see what their trainer had in mind. Even Misty was curious to see what he had hidden up his sleeves.

Index fingers came out, first, pointing at the blue, poisonous rodent. "Now, first off. Aednat, I'm going to use you as my secret weapon, since you know the most moves that can take a strong rock Pokemon down by yourself. So be prepared...You're going to have to work the hardest." Aednat couldn't help but sit up a little straighter, hold her head a little higher, and puff her chest out just a little bit more in pride.

"Now, there are some attacks I want some of you to learn. Storm and Aednat, both of you are going to be working on Dig. Then Aednat, you and Blade are going to figure out Toxic together."

"Wait a sec, isn't Toxic a poison move?" Misty asked. _Duh_

"Yes...But don't forget; Blade is also part Bug-type, so he will be to learn it, and with Aednat being a poison-type...She can guide him."

There was silence from the redhead as she tried to shake away her nerves at being reminded that she was in the presence of a _bug_.

"Okay, moving on. Ace and Nika, I wish I could teach you both Steel Wing, but that's going to take some time. So I'm going to start putting more weight on your wings to build up the strength in them."

Both of the 'lovebirds' as Blade had referred to them, nodded in agreement to the plan, even if it took a while, and they were past this gym before they learned it, Steel Wing was still a good skill to know.

"Next, Storm, you are going to learn Brick Break. It's similar to Rock Smash, but not as strong. But I'm sure with enough practice we can make it strong. I'm also going to start adding some weight to your tail in preparation for Iron Tail."

"Pika!" Electricity sparked outwards from red cheeks as the determined little mouse had already put it in his mind that he was _going_ to learn these two moves.

"Aednat, on top of the other two, I want you to learn Rock Smash and Hyper Fang. I know four moves is a tall order, but I think you can do it."

"Nido-nido-ran!" The little blue rodent jumped up and down, happy and excited that her trainer believed in her. Not to mention it was helping with her life-long goal of getting stronger.

"Blade, you're going to need to learn Fury Cutter, and team up with Storm for Brick Break. Try to practice Focus Energy when you can too." The mantis simply nodded in understanding, keeping his ever-present calm.

"Ace, you're up for Drill Peck. I think that should help strengthen your beak, and with your eyesight I think you should be able to find a Pokemon's weak point and be able to use that move to severely weaken it. Plus, it could be a good move if you're tired; Just find a weak spot, hit it as hard as you can and soften it up for the next Pokemon to take advantage of."

"Spearooow!"

"Nika, try to work on your Wing Attack and turning Gust into a Whirlwind. How's that sound?"

"Prrridgey—ooootto!" Was accompanied by a flap of her wings.

"And finally, Bulma. You're going to work on Double Team. With the set of moves you already learned you're going to be one hell of a fish Pokemon to beat."

"Karp-karp!" The fish jumped out of the water, coming back down with enough speed to splash-soak everyone in the vicinity. Now the soak trainers and the pokemon had do a double take and look around one another. Then all them start to laugh st the scene. Bulma was one heck of a Magikarp.

-That Night-

Ash and Misty were _not_ talking to each other. Ash had already gone back to the Pokemon Center and got his team healed and rested up, and then he'd returned to the training ground to sleep under the stars with his Pokemon.

One might think they were weird because Ash would rather stay in the woods than sleep in a bed, but that wasn't the case. Ash was just mad at Misty. Why?

(Flashback)

As Ash and his Pokemon trained, Misty decided to use some of Ash's training tools and wound up getting some small weights for her water Pokemon, she was working with them on some physical training, instead of just set moves to build their bodies up.

She even had a small little weight on each of her new Water Pokemon's thin, blue, stalky legs. It was happily skating on top of the water. When Misty finally realized they'd yet to find out the name of her new Pokemon.

"Hey, Ash, do you think we could use Dexter now?"

The simple answer was for the raven-haired boy to pull the encyclopedic device out and point it at the water-skating critter.

_Surskit_

_Type: Bug/Water_

_Gender: Male_

_Specialty: Rain Dash_

_Surskit, the Pond Skater Pokemon. From the tips of it's feet, Surskit secretes an oil that enables it to walk on water as if it were skating. It draws prey with a sweet scent from the tip of it's head._

"Oh. Wow, Surskit sure is a cool Pokemon. Man, you are really luck to have caught him, Misty." Turning to give his companion a goofy grin, he was met with a girl that was sheet white, all color having drained from her as her body shook.

"B-b-bug? I-it sat on m-m-m-my head!"

Ash reached out, grabbing her biceps, and shook her. Trying to get her to snap out of it. "Get a hold of yourself, he's part water too."

Misty grabbed her head with both hands and her body started to sway back and forth. "Bug Pokemon...Water Pokemon...Bug and Water Pokemon mix? Love water...hate bugs. Water...Bug...Water...Bug...It makes no sense! It's wrong. Very very wrong. Does not compute. End of line..."

"Misty!"

The poor redhead fell to the ground, Ash trying to catch her, but sadly, missing. Hearing his mistress in distress, Surskit turned, skating with high speed straight off of the water, and jumping clear across ground to get to her side, climbing onto her chest and shooting a small Water Gun at her face to try and wake her up.

Slowly, her eyes began to flicker open, face scrunching in annoyance at whatever was spraying her in the face. The first thing her eyes saw...was Surskit. Her _half bug _Pokemon.

` "Ah! Get away from me!"

It was quite odd, how, in distress, Humans could apparently learn how to fly. Backwards. Perhaps the human body has very well hidden solid rocket boosters inside of it, only for use under certain stressful situations...

Not understanding what was going on, the little blue thing just tilted it's head in curiosity, blinking at how quickly his trainer had moved, and started to walk forward towards her. "Sursk?"

"Stop! I don't want you near me! I don't want you as my Pokemon either! You're just a creepy, disgusting bug!"

The little half bug, half-water type started to cry.

"Misty!"

"What!? Go away you ugly bug! Go!" She shouted, throwing a shoe – _Where had that come from? - _at Surskit.

In response, the little bug ran off crying.

(End Flashback)

After that, the two had started to fight about what happened. Misty tried to explain that she had bad experiences with a Bug-type, but Ash told her what Storm had done to him when he first met him, and what Ace and his gang had done to him. He asked her if she thought he should be afraid of those types of Pokemon because of 'bad experiences'.

So now he was here, getting away from the mean, bug-hating girl. Yawning to himself, he wondered what was going to happen to them now.

Well, whatever happned, he hoped things would get better between the two of them, and that Surskit was okay. Looking around, he could see all his Pokemon sleeping around him. Storm was on his chest. Aednat was draped over his leg. Ace was nesting on his stomach for some odd reason, and Nika was snuggled into his side, and, by extension...Ace. It was kind of funny, really. To see the bickering pair of birds snuggled so close to each other and looking utterly at peace. Then Blade was leaning back against the other side of his body, legs crossed once more, and then the little Magikarp, the first Pokemon that had actually started to _listen _to him, Bulma, was floating in the pond at his feet.

It was almost torture for the half-awake fish. She loved her trainer probably more than any of the rest of them; he had taken the time and effort to transform her from a _useless_ Magikarp who could only splash up and down in the water, to an actual viable Pokemon that could somewhat fend for herself, and he'd been patient about it too. But she couldn't even sleep close to him like everyone else!

Five feet away from her, Ash smiled to himself unknowingly as his eyes drooped, wondering to himself how close he felt to all of his Pokemon.

**The End (of this Chapter XP)**

**Next time, on Slow the heck Down: Ash will face Brock, the Rock type gym leader, against whom he has no type advantage! And what will become of Surskit and Misty?**

**Announcement:**

**Thanks to Roxel, I have decided to add three Shiny Pokemon!**

**The winners are: Eevee, Charmander, and Ponyta**

**Why?**

**Eevee is mostly for CerberusLabrat, my beta reader. Plus I think it would be a good Pokemon for Ash to hatch from an egg too. (CL: Luna, I love you.)**

**Charmander, I agree with Uchiha Rai; a Shiny Charizard is awesome. Plus with it being shine it will be stronger than a normal Charizard, and will be able to give Clone Charizard a good fight during the first movie events. It'll probably also tick Gary off a little when it evolves at the dig.**

**Ponyta: I like the idea of Ash riding this horse Pokemon. Just picture him as a knight. I also see that when Ash carries the torch to the Pokemon tournament, I can so see him running beside it. Maybe have Mr. Goodshow riding it. Another thing for Gary to get jealous with.**

**Over these Shiny Pokemon can help create good future chapters.**

**As for poll for Eevee Evolution:**

**Espeon (CL: Pick me! Pick me!)**

**Sylveon**

**Umbreon or Leafeon**

**Stay as an Eevee, Flareon, or Glaceon**

**Vaporeon (which has no votes!)**

**And that's all for now! Don't forget to review. We love reviews. Cerberus hugs them.**


	7. Chapter 7

**First Gym Battle (Part 2)**

**Here we go, another chapter!**

**Now, before we go any further I must take a moment to thank the most important person to this story. Who single-handedly helps make this story great, a man who takes time out of his busy life to make this story make sense; the one and only CerberusLabrat! (Well...I don't think I'm the only. I haven't been able to use this username a couple times because it's already taken. Lol). The greatest beta reader in the world! I'm serious people, without him I am screwed. So you need to thank him too.**

**Also, we are happy to receive each and every one of the 87 reviews. We're so close to a hundred I can almost taste it. So thanks to all of you.**

**Also, thank you to all of the 249 favorites and 257 follows (CL: How does THAT happen? I follow before I favorite). We love you so much!**

**COMMENT REPLIES:**

**First, apologies for mixing up Brick Break and Rock Smash. That was a mistake that Luna made and completely slipped Cerberus' attention during the proofreading process. That's our mistake.**

**Lightningblade49: Yes, I agree Ash's Pokemon will build up a resistance to electricity. Especially his fighting lovebirds.**

**Stallion6 of Deviantart: I'm so happy you caught that about Blade speaking like Yoda. You have to thank my little cousin; he likes to speak that way. Annoying it can be, Yes.**

**GrayAngel13: Ash already has poison right now in Aednat (a Female Nidoran), and she and Storm (Pikachu) are working on Iron Tail.**

**Kyunaru: No, Ash will not get an Arcanine. Reasons why: Gary already gets one, and Ash's mom is getting a Growlith, as CL pointed out; her guard dog. (CL: Arcanine's are also frickin' ginormous.)**

**LightRayPearlshipper: No, I don't know what Sylveon's type will be. But me and Lightningblade has talked about it and we think it might be a new type called a Fairy type, which I believe will be evolved with the moon stone. (CL: On my end of things, I still think they should have made Moon Stone = Umbreon and Sun Stone = Espeon. But whatevs.)(Luna:Agree but can't help)**

**Uber Ghidorah: Lot of great Pokemon there, but it's not only me who picks them. CerberusLabrat is going to help make sure I don't go Pokemon catch crazy. (CL: I think the Shiny Aron and the Aerodactyl are interesting. I'm the kind of person who hates random Pokemon going into a team. So I will add MY suggested list for the future in the bottom.)**

**random bug: Both you and CL are pushing for Espeon. As for the spiky haired Pokemon, I never understand how they are rare, I just know they are cute. But Eevee will still be a shiny. I have a pretty good idea what I have in store for the Eevee's brother. ;) I know you will all enjoy. As for pairing I'm a sucker for teasing. Like I said, there are three girls I have in mind that will fight for Ash and some good Yaoi moments, but I can't think of the main guy to chase Ash. Also, these three girls are going to pop out at random moments but also help him to get stronger. So if you really want a boy to chase after Ash and be like the three girls, that's going to help. They need to be able to do something that will help Ash get stronger, not a Pokemon trainer rival.**

**UEG nastykiller: I agree, Ash can get more than one Eevee. But I am going to stick with one for now and we will see what happens in other regions.**

**K. Bradshaw: You will have to read to see what will happen with Misty and Surskit. Also, Cerberus, look like you have another Espeon favorite. (CL: GREAT SUCCESS!) As for Sylveon, I will refer you to the comment directed at LightRayPearlShipper. (CL: It's a new evolution for Eevee that has been confirmed for the next generation games. We just have no real idea what the flyin' hell it is. Yet.)**

**Dawn Ketchum Fan: Misty has some growing up to do, but with the help of Ash she will be able to do it. Good Pokemon, but they'll have to wait. (CL: Eevee is already happening. I like Dratini and Abra as well. But at the same time, I'm trying to weed out a lot of options Luna has so Ash doesn't end up with like 50 Pokemon and half of them never showing up.) Also, your name makes it pretty obvious which pairing you're pulling for. (CL: Just to make you feel better, if my choice pairing [Altoshipping] isn't an option, then Pearlshipping is the other pairing I'm going to bug Luna about endlessly. So who knows, you might see it! XP), but only one person knows who the three girls are...I'm not sure I told CL which pairing I like? (CL: You did not. Speak.)**

**Dragonskyt: Thanks for your review, I enjoyed reading it. But I'll have to ask; What _would _make this story A-quality? But keep in mind this one is my first story (Family Guy doesn't count, because I just wrote that to see what I could do and I enjoy writing this one more, with the help of CL, of course.) I think me and CL are doing pretty good.**

**Saiyan-Styles: As far as Togepi goes, I'm not sure what to do with him yet. I never liked Misty taking that Pokemon away from Ash and then pushing him away. That was the final straw that made me a Misty hater. While I started to tolerate her more as time went on and like her better when she's off the show and did guest appearances. Which, if you haven't guessed yet, there will be _no way_ that Misty will _ever _be paired up with Ash in a romantic way in my story. So I know I really don't want Misty to have Togepi, no offense to Misty fans.**

**Chaoscrafter008: I agree, what saddened me is they never made him grow during the show (CL: I refuse to watch Best Wishes because they confirmed he's still only 10.) As for Red's Eevee, honestly that would make things too easy on Ash and too complicated to write. So Eevee's evolution is up for vote.**

**-LANGUAGE WARNING-**

**Guest: The one who said "Shiny Pokemon are not stronger, stupid." Well...I'll let Cerberus handle this comment. (CL: Alright, dipshit. We're gonna have some fun. There's this thing called 'Creative License', have you ever heard of it? Now, beyond that. In Generation I and II Shiny Pokemon were generally stronger than non-Shinies because they had to have a certain IV mix. Were they the _strongest_? No, but they were stronger than a lot of the run of the mill non-shinies. Obviously, game stats don't factor in here in this story, but Luna has chosen to make Shinies stronger in this story as a way of translating that particular game mechanic. Also, it makes sense in a real world format as well: Shiny Pokemon are the equivalent to being Albino. In many species albinos are cast out and either have to learn to survive on their own, or they're actively hunted by their own kind and don't survive unless they're strong. Consider yourself owned. Now get the fuck out of our story.) thanks you CL, isn't he great guys.**

**-END LANGUAGE WARNING-**

**Oh I am Slain: I am going to wait for the lengthy review. But thanks for the compliment. My dream is to re-write this region and then be able to write separate stories for the other regions Ash goes to, and with CerberusLabrat's help I know we can do it!**

**Now that we've taken care of all the comments...**

**Let's rock and roll!**

A young trainer with a yellow mouse perched on his shoulder looked straight ahead at a pair of double steel doors. These steel doors breaking up the exterior of a building that could otherwise pass for simply being a gigantic rock, were it not for the enormous big red sign reading 'GYM' over the doors.

This young man was excited, but scared at the same time; he took a deep breath and prepared himself to walk through those doors, towards his first challenge in his journey, when he was interrupted.

"Ash!"

Turning his head over his shoulder, the aforementioned boy turned to see his ponytailed traveling companion running towards him. The orange haired girl caught up with him fairly quickly after that and leaned over, hands on her knees and panting to catch her breath as she stood before him. Ash couldn't help but narrow his eyes a little at the young girl...Older than him, of course. But still young.

"What is it, Misty?"

Emerald met Chocolate as she looked up, her face flushed a little and cheeks slightly red. Upon closer inspection, Ash noticed that dark circles found a home underneath the girl's eyes.

"Look...I'm sorry a bout my whole bug issue...thing..."

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."

"Pika!" The yellow electromouse agreed with his trainer, a chorus of agreement that caused Misty to hang her head in shame.

"I know. I should be apologizing to Surskit...I feel so guilty for what I've done to him. I loved my little Cutey before I knew he was part bug. He never gave me a reason not to...It's hard for me to face bugs though. I've been afraid of them for as long as I can remember. But...Surskit isn't like most bugs. He's part water too...and he's my little Cutey and I...I miss him."

At this point, tears were starting to build at the corners of her green eyes until they were too heavy to stay, and just started to streak down the smooth skin of her cheeks. Ash stepped forward with a small sigh and gently began to pat her shoulder. At least until she flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck, nearly smacking Storm off of his shoulder as she sought to bury her head into the crook of his neck. Anyone who would pass by might even laugh, considering the height difference between the boy and the girl. "Pika!" Storm complained, having been forced to jump onto Misty' head, then Ash's, and over onto the opposite shoulder to avoid getting donkey punched straight off of his trainer's shoulder.

"Oh Ash, I miss him so much! I miss him riding my head like a little hat...Please, help me find him and help me get over this bug phobia. I just don't know what to do anymore."

Ash could only blink in surprise at this turn of events, some small part of his brain muttering something about over-emotional women. Weird. Nevertheless, he allowed her to cry on his shoulder while he wrapped his arms around her and began to rub her back, partially hoping it would help her to get her head on straight and maybe back a _little _teensy weensy bit away from him...

When she finally did calm down and pulled a bit away, to a spiritual sigh of relief deep inside Ash's soul, he place a hand under her chin and pushed her head up for her to meet his eyes. Staring deep into her emerald orbs his thumbs moved of their own volition, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

"Misty, it's going to be okay. I'll be happy to help you look for Surskit." The relief in Misty's eyes was instantaneous and impossible to miss.

"Honestly, I think he's still around. Just...Not ready to face you right now." Ash's follow-up theory seemed to add even more guilt onto Misty's shoulders as they sagged under the invisible weight and her head drooped once more, eyes gazing towards the ground. _Dear God, let me finish before you get completely depressed..._Ash found himself thinking.

"But I still think he wants to be your Pokemon. He just needs time to see you are willing to change your view on bugs."

"How do I do that?" The responding question was asked pretty much the instant Ash had finished.

Ash found himself shrugging. "Who knows, maybe we need to start getting you used to bug-types, and if he sees you start to accept them, he'll come around. I think Blade could help out."

In Misty's mind, the image of the gigantic insect with razor sharp swords for his arms was suddenly crystal clear. "..._Blade."_ She breathed out the name in mild fear as she envisioned those blades, stabbing into her body...

"Yeah, if you can get used to him. Then other bug-types should be a cakewalk." At this point the vision shifted. Needle arms of a Beedrill doing the same. The horns of a Pinsir, crushing her between their sharp outjutting spikes. Caterpie and Metapod crawling all over her...The girls body turned to stone, something that didn't escape Ash's notice. Something that caused him to panic. And curse whatever deity had made this girl so afraid of bugs.

"Don't worry. We'll do baby steps! I'm not expecting you to jump and hug him as soon as I let him out of his Pokeball...Remember. Baby steps!" Ash hurriedly assured, hoping that it would somewhat alleviate Misty's illogical fears. And it did. Somewhat. She appeared to return to normal, rubbing the back of her head as a sweat drop appeared out of embarrassment. "Yes. Of course..."

"...Wait. You said at the beginning. Does this mean I will have to hug that bug?!"

Ash quickly turned around and dismissed her with a wave. "Relax. Everything will work out in the end."

"You didn't answer my question, Ash Ketchum!"

"Storm, you read for out first battle?" Ash did his best to completely ignore her.

"Pika!"

"Alright! Let's go!" And with that, he turned back towards the double doors; the entrance to the gym, and jogged towards them. "Ash, Wait! I want to watch!"

Misty had already forgotten about the bug hug. She was eager to see what Ash had up his sleeve when a facing a gym against which his team had no type advantage.

As he reached the large doors, Ash pushed them open to finally enter the Pewter City Gym, filled with anticipation to see the results of his training and the nerves of facing his first Gym Battle, all rolling together into a general feeling of excitement.

The gym was, in a word, huge. It was made of stone, and rocks were simply everywhere scattered around the interior. Ash, Storm, and Misty could all barely see a dark-skinned teenager sitting in the dim lighting of the room. Dim for the briefest of moments.

"Who goes there?" With a click, a blindingly bright spotlight turned on and focused on the sitting person. The combination of the unfamiliar voice, the loud sound of the spotlight turning on, and the bright light threw Ash off and made him jump a few feet backwards, shielding his eyes and squeezing them shut to try and keep the light to a manageable level.

"Are you the gym leader, Brock? My name's Ash Ketchum and I've come to challenge you to an official gym match." Ash declared with a confidence he only half felt, and a determination he fully embodied, as he forced himself to write his body and open his eyes to the onslaught of light.

Brock simply looked at the Pikachu sitting on Ash's shoulder. "Is this your first Gym Battle? Gym Battles are different from your everyday Trainer Battles. We are the officials to decide if Trainers are worthy for the big leagues. It seems that your Pikachu is in it's cutest stage. It can't win." He made this declaration in complete confidence, as if he knew Ash was an idiot just for walking through the doors with a Pikachu on his team, used or not.

"Pika!" The mentioned yellow mouse had a very angry glare pointing in the direction of the teenager for his remark, and his cheeks were sparking with power. It took a concerned glance from Ash to get the mouse to take a deep breath, settle down, and calm himself.

As Storm took a breath to calm his temper, so too did his Trainer take a breath to calm his nerves. Just like Blade seemed to try and teach him every time his mind got overloaded and emotion was getting to him, and, once he was calm, he began to speak.

"As a trainer, you should learn not to underestimate your opponent before the battle's even begun. As a Gym Leader...I would have figured you'd learned that already."

Misty let out a quiet sigh that no one heard off from the side as she shook her head and muttered something to herself. "There he goes again...He can't really blame us for underestimating him. He just looks like an innocent kid when you first see him..."

"Suit yourself. As a Gym Leader, I am to accept every challenge." Brock reached up next to his head, and snapped his fingers. A field full of boulders shooting out of the floor to create a miniature stadium for the purposes of a battle.

"Good luck, Ash." Misty smiled towards her companion, her mind still eager to know how he was going to handle his first Gym Battle.

"For my first Pokemon, I will go with Geodude!" Brock announced as he threw out the red and white capsule that proceeded to explode into what appeared to be a boulder with two arms.

"Geodude!"

"Alright, I'm sending out Blade!" Ash answered, throwing his own capsule though this one was pink and white; which exploded into a gigantic, calm, bug. Bladed arms crossed in front of it's chest as it gazed across the field at the opposing Geodude.

(AN: Hah! Bet you all thought it was going to be Storm or Aednat, didn't you?)

Brock found himself looking at the Scyther. A picture of this mantis-Pokemon might as well be in the dictionary definition of calm. "Hmm. Interesting choice. This match might be entertaining after all. Geodude, Tackle!"

The armed boulder flew towards the Scyther, who stood completely still, not moving a muscle and waiting for his trainer's order.

"Jump, and use Focus Energy!" And there it was. Instantly, Blade exploded into motion; wings spreading and a miniscule crouch downwards before launching up into the air; clear over Geodude's Tackle. Once in the air, Blade curled into a ball, eyes closing as he gathered both his mind and body for the events to follow. It really was amazing how much fire and energy a simple gathering of the mind could provide.

"Geodude, use Rollout!" The boulder spun around and threw itself forward into an endless somersault as it spun itself towards the bug-type.

"Blade, meet it head on with Brick Break." Ash commanded, to the complete shock of the opposing Gym Leader.

Rollout and Brick Break met halfway, Both Pokemon getting knocked to the opposite ends of the gym with cries of their species names. The Geodude sported a large crack along it's rocky form. Blade, on the other hand, seemed relatively fine; simply being knocked off it's feet. It recovered quickly enough, and with an air of calm and grace that Ash had come to expect from this particular creature. Despite the large bruise that the Mantis was sporting.

Seeing the recovery of the Mantis seemed to trigger to Brock; Hey, wait a second. The Battle's still going on. And with this thought, he recovered, moving back into action. "Quickly, use Rock Throw!" Geodude quickly...almost desperately, it seemed, reached down to the side and grabbed whatever rocks it could find, and began flinging them towards Blade.

"Dodge those rocks and use Toxic on that crack!" The fact that Blade was a Scyther became quite apparent; the speed associated with it as he became a blur, dodging the rocks that were thrown in his direction even without the help of Agility or Quick Attack. With graceful flips, rolls, spins and sidesteps he dodged the flying rocks, nearing his opponent quickly.

"Don't let Scyther hit you!" Brock called out when he realized how dangerously close Blade had become.

But it was too late, as Blade sunk his right scythe into the crack he had created earlier on Geodude, and then Blades arm turned a dark, sinister purple as he forced the poisonous toxin he'd taught his body to create, secreted it through the blade in his arm, deep into Geodude's body. The Geodude whimpered in pain as the toxin quickly ran through his body.

"Geodude, use Dig and get out of there!"

Brock didn't want to see what other attacks this kid had up his sleeves; but he had to act quickly. He didn't have much time before the poison would take it's toll on Geodude and sap the remaining energy that the boulder had.

Even as Geodude moved to obey, it was obvious that the time it had left might be even shorter than it's trainer had expected; every motion to start digging underground even looked weak, although the boulder itself looked quite happy to be getting away from Blade and out of harm's way.

"Blade, get ready for it to pop out of the ground. Concentrate and wait for it to show itself." Blade followed his orders, kneeling down onto one knee, bladed arms crossing in front of it's body and eyes closing as he used his other senses; feeling and listening to the faint rumble that permeated through the ground as Geodude burrowed underneath the battlefield.

Time seemed to drag on, seconds feeling like hours until Geodude exploded from the ground directly underneath Blade. "Blade, now's our chance! Brick Break, one last time!" Ash called, even as his Mantis was doing a graceful backflip, using the energy from Geodude's attack to save his own; rolling with the punches, so to speak, to move further away.

When his feet hit the floor, he blurred again. Leaving all three of the spectating humans wondering if maybe, just maybe, he actually _was_ adding Agility or Quick Attack to his orders. His path; straight towards his opponent.

"No time to dodge, defense curl!" Geodude, eyes wide in fear at how Blade appeared completely unaffected by the dig, and how quickly the completely calm bug was _flying _at him, quickly did as he was ordered, curling in on itself and attempting to ready it's body for the Brick Break.

Blades arm smashed into the form of the Geodude, hammering the Geodude halfway into the ground, the ground that had been weakened by Geodude's own Dig technique; the loose dirt covering the battlefield flew into the air at the sheer force of Blade's attack, and both Trainer and Gym Leader stood, waiting for the dust to settle and reveal the result.

When the dust did settle, Geodude's body was shaking violently. As was Blades, but for entirely different reasons. Both Pokemon were staring at each other. Brock smiled; his Pokemon wasn't out of it just yet. "Okay, Geodude, use...Geodude!"

Before he could even finish, the poison took it's toll on Geodude's body, sapping the rest of the energy the boulder needed to resist Scyther's attack.

It was out cold before it even knew what had happened.

"But...how? The toxic couldn't have spread that quick...Unless..." Brock was dumbfounded, and he looked closer towards his fainted Pokemon, and noticed the poison seeping out of the crack in Geodude's skin. Ash had used Focus Energy to build up Blade's focus and power, then Brick Break to create an opening, Toxic on the crack so that it would spread faster into Geodude's system...and then he really could have just used the Scyther's speed advantage and played keep away until Geodude fainted from the poison. No matter what had happened, Geodude had been doomed the moment those Toxins entered it's body. It was clever, Brock had to admit. This kid was more than met the eye.

Though hopefully he wasn't a transformer. Bad memories of Dark of the Moon...

"I must admit, Ash. Your Scyther is very well trained."

Brock returned Geodude into his Pokeball. "Well done. Let's just see if he can take on my best. Onix, go!" he threw out the spinning red and white orb. And when it exploded in red light to reveal it's contents...a gigantic rocky snake appeared. And filled almost half of the battlefield on it's own with it's size. It released a mighty roar, causing Ash to take a step back in surprise, and Misty to literally jump.

Blade just blinked. Looking at the giant rock-snake as if he were unimpressed.

"That thing is huge!" Misty exclaimed.

Ash and Storm both nodded in agreement and gulped at the same time. But Blade just narrowed his eyes in determination and glared up at his gigantic opponent. This didn't change anything; it was just another Pokemon he had to face. None of the calm left Blade's visage. But then again, did it ever?

Brock rose an eyebrow at Blade. It wasn't very often a Pokemon wouldn't be intimidated by Onix's sheer size. Especially not the Pokemon of a young trainer.

"Scy-scyther." It stated to Onix, the Rock Pokemon tilting it's head in curiosity, and the Pikachu on Ash's shoulder doing an Anime fall with a sweat drop on it's head. Ash shook his head clear of any misgivings about the size difference, and prepared himself. Getting ready for his next match. "Alright, I'm ready." The young boy pumped his fist into the air, ready for action.

Brock smirked at the younger trainer. "Good. Onix, start this off with a Tackle." the giant Rock Snake shifted into motion for the attack.

"Dodge, and use Focus Energy." The sword-bug did as it had before; leaping into the air, and then curling up and gathering it's mind and body.

"Quick, Onix! Bind Scyther before it attacks!" Brock shouted, immediately seeing where this was going and not wanting a repeat action of the Geodude match.

The snake changed direction quick, wrapping it's massive body around Blade as the Mantis was curled up gathering energy. "Blade!" Ash shouted, watching in horror as Onix had his friend in a seemingly inescapable grip. Even though Ash could see that Blade was in trouble, that calm look still never left. Either Scyther was really an emotionless robot, or he had complete faith in his trainer to think of something to get him out of there.

That faith was heartwarming to Ash once he recognized it.

"Looks like Scyther is trapped. Onix, keep putting the squeeze on Scyther and don't let him escape." Brock ordered, leading Onix to constrict tighter around Blade's body. Squeezing the bug as best it could.

"Blade, I know you're hurting but hold on. I need you to use Toxic on Onix."

"Scyther."

Unable to use his arms, this time Scyther used his mouth to deliver the poison; finding a section of skin to bite down on, releasing the potent poison into Onix's body. Causing a cry of pain, and the grip to loosen. Just enough that Blade would be able to uncurl.

"Now, Blade! Get your arms loose and Fury Swipe as much as you can!" And the uncurling happened, both sword-like arms being raised back into the air, glowing with energy. _Is he adding Brick Break to Fury Swipes? _Without any apparent answer to that question, the sword arms alternating flew forward and then retracted. Ruthlessly stabbing and slashing against Onix's body with frightening speed. Onix's Bind was forced to let go as the snake tried to escape the pain, fortunately for it, it was the best thing it could do as Blade dropped to the ground; the sudden reunion with the ground at the end of the fall being rather harsh and knocking Blade for a loop.

The ever-calm Pokemon finally began to show it's difficulties, struggling to stand.

"Your Scyther is determined, but it's time to end this." Brock declared. "Onix, finish Scyther with one last Tackle." The snake did as it was told, and flew into Blade with all 450+ pounds of rock that composed it's body. Not even Blade could stand up against that, and when Onix pulled away, the Mantis was knocked out.

Ash looked towards his fallen Pokemon, not in disappointment, or in sadness. But rather, in pure pride. The bug had taken out Geodude, and that Toxic meant that Onix's time was limited now. Even if the greater body weight and size meant that Toxic would take longer to take effect. He pulled out Blade's Pokeball and returned his good friend. "You did a great job, Blade. I'm proud of you." He whispered to the Pokeball before moving to re-attach it to his belt, shifting his hand after doing so to grab his next contestant. He couldn't help the smirk that covered his face. "Alright, Aednat...it's your turn."

"Aednat?" Brock questioned as he wondered what mystery Pokemon would appear from the spinning orb. The beam of red light exploded from the ball and formed up into...

A small blue female Nidoran.

"What? Just a little Nidoran?" Brock questioned in shock, not noticing Aednat's blood red eyes or how they seemed to glow even brighter with a fire at his underestimation of her.

Misty giggled. "Believe me, she's not your every day humble Nidoran..." She warned. Partially wondering what that Nidoran's father had been for her to have such a fighting spirit.

The Gym Leader watched in amazement as the little blue mouse proved she was the polar opposite to Blade in fighting style; Jumping up and down happy and eager to fight the gigantic rock snake that utterly dwarfed her in size. "Aednat, calm down and get ready to fight..." Ash admonished, trying to get Aednat not to waste her energy on jumping up and down in excitement from the challenge.

"Right, let's get started." Brock agreed. "Onix, Rock Throw on Nidoran!"

"Dodge it with dig!"

As the rocks fell towards the ground, flung across the floor by Onix's tail, the little poison rodent buried herself into the ground, finding herself having an easier time than she expected. Possibly because Geodude had loosened things up earlier, and she quickly disappeared from Onix's view.

"What?! Onix! Be prepared!" Onix watched the ground closely. It's body shaking from the earlier attack of Toxic from Blade, but since his body was so astoundingly huge...the poison wasn't traveling as fast.

"Okay, Aednat, like we practiced. Rock Smash."

"Onix, get ready..." Brock warned.

A blue blur shot out of the ground in a spray of dust and smashed into a spot on Onix's body like a little comet. In particular, the spot on Onix where Blade's Fury Swipes had been targeted and had started to create small cracks in Onix's skin. Well...the headbutt that Aednat delivered caused those cracks to explode outwards in a spiderweb of pain and suffering that caused the rock snake to roar out in anger and pain.

"Bind Nidoran!" Brock cried out.

Once again, another one of Ash's Pokemon was stuck in a Bind, but this time...Ash just smirked.

"Perfect. Now, Aednat. Use Toxic on that mark and then hit Onix in the face with Poison Sting."

"Nidoran!" She confirmed as she rammed her horn into the cracks to unleash the potent toxins, and then pulled back and flung her head up, to fire a poisonous barb from her head at Onix's face.

"Oniiix!" Her target cried out, but still held on tight to the poisonous rodent.

"Just hold on tight, Onix..." Brock willed.

"Aednat, use Hyper Fang to get yourself free." The fangs at the front of the blue rodents mouth glowed with power as she bit down into the pieces of cracked rock that were holding her. A giant chunk of rock came loose and fell to the ground. Biting that hard into a spot that was already causing Onix pain caused the giant snake to let out a deafening roar of pain as Aednat wiggled herself free from his Bind.

"Quick, Aednat...Run up Onix's body and Bite down hard on that rock on the center of it's head, and don't let go." Ash ordered.

"Onix! Shake Nidoran off before it's too late!"

Onix whipped around as the little blue rodent tried to run along it's rock body. The little girls eyes glowing with fire as she stayed on the whipping body of the rock Pokemon and neared her destination.

"Niiiidoraaaan!" She shouted out, clamping her sharp fangs and strong jaws around on the rock on the center of Onix's head.

"Ooooniiix!" Her target roared out once again in pain and started to thrash around, trying to get the source of his pain far, far away.

With the combination of three separate poison attacks, and all the smashed parts on it's body, it was only a matter of time before the Pokemon collapsed to the ground. All Aednat had to do was hold on for a little bit longer. As these thoughts were running through Ash's head he felt some weight on his body, and he couldn't help but think on how much pain the Onix had to be going through. His mind wondered back to where Flint had shown him the house that the Gym Leader lived in, and the surprise he had found at what he saw.

Brock taking care of ten little brothers and sisters at home because his mother had passed away and his deadbeat father had left him behind to become a Pokemon Master. So it was up to Brock to take care of them. Even now, in the middle of this battle, he could feel all their little hands holding him down.

He was so focused on the battle he didn't even turn around to look.

"Ah, I can't help but feel all Brock's little siblings holding on and the weight of their pain holding me down..."

"Uh...Ash, look around you..." Upon hearing this from Misty, Ash finally did tear his attention away from the battle to look around him. And find a mob of little kids surrounding him and holding on to his body. Brock's siblings.

"What the..." Ash started, confused at first, but quickly realizing that they were watching the battle and didn't want him to hurt Onix.

"We're not going to let you hurt Onix again, you big bully!" One of them snapped at him.

"I'm sorry, but this is a gym match and I need all eight badges to compete in the Pokemon League..." Ash started softly, not being able to help from sympathizing with the group of kids that didn't want to see their big brothers Pokemon get hurt.

"That's enough, all of you get off of him. We're to fight until the end. Now get off of him." Brock scolded them.

"But Brock, we know you worked hard raising your Pokemon and you love them so much. That's why we can't stand by and watch Onix get hurt again..." Another on of Brock's brothers cried.

Ash now saw tears in their eyes. _Oh you have got to be kidding me. Please don't cry... _Ash thought, looking back to the battle, he saw all it was going to take was one more hit and Onix would be out for the count. But looking back at the kids, all he could see were their crying faces. One little girl rubbed her face into Ash's stomach and begged him. "Please stop hurting Onix, it hurts to see big brother sad..."

_All it takes is one Double Kick and..._"I forfeit." Ash declared, unable to refuse the mob of kids. Every one of their eyes widened. "Aednat, it's over. Come on and let me take you and Blade to the Pokemon Center."

The little blue mouse ran over to him and leapt into his arms. She was sad that she didn't get to finish her match, but on the bright side she had brought that Onix down and had been a hairs breadth away from winning. She couldn't wait to face another Onix again.

Storm leaned towards Ash and rubbed his red cheek into Ash's cheeks, letting him know that it was okay.

Before Ash left, he turned to look at the kids, and smiled at them. "Wow, your big brother is a strong Gym Leader." He assured them. Unable to do anything but compliment them to try and make them happy.

One of the mob, Ash couldn't even tell which one at first, spoke up. "Yes, big brother is the best!"

Ash grinned again, reaching out to ruffle the kids hair before a little girl grabbed his hand and walked him towards the door. "Let me help you to the Pokemon Center." She stated, only to be interrupted as one of Brock's brothers grabbed Ash's other hand. "No, let me help." Then there was a tug on his jacket. "No, I'll help." Somehow, a sudden weight jumped onto Ash's back, with one of Brock's sisters wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. "I want to come!"

Before Ash knew it, he was covered in little kids, each of them dragging him towards the door and pulling at him trying to get his attention. Telling him how great their big brother was and asking him about himself.

All this happened while Brock just looked on in astonishment as the young trainer let himself be guided away by a mob of kids; his own little brothers and sisters.

He was interrupted from this by a small sigh, emanating from the girl that had accompanied Ash into the gym when he'd arrived. "That guy has too big a heart if you ask me..." She wondered, shaking her head with a smile.

"No kidding..."

"You know he could have borrowed any of my water Pokemon, and I happen to be a water Pokemon trainer..." Misty started off with a smirk.

"What?"

"That's right. And they're all pretty strong. But that kid wouldn't even think about it. He said that he believed his Pokemon had what it took to win it." She put her hands up behind her head and walked out.

The Gym Leader stood in shell shock for a moment. All he could think about being the trainer he had just faced. Ash Ketchum. He knew if his brothers and sisters hadn't stopped the battle, he would've lost. There was only one thing left to do.

-LOCATION: RANDOM HILL TOP-

"So that's it, you're leaving." Misty questioned since, finally, the little kids that had left and Ash had finished getting his Pokemon healed.

"Yeah, I just hope the next Gym battle his siblings don't watch. Besides, we can use this time to help with your bug problem. You think you can give Blade a hug now?" Ash asked, winking teasingly at Misty and holding the Pink and White Heal Ball that held Scyther.

"Why you...!" The orange-haired girl stated with a blush that could either be from embarrassment or anger...or, seeing as it was Misty. Maybe both at once..

"Hey, Ash!" Somebody called out from the distance, causing the pair to turn around to see who had called out his name...to find Brock running towards him.

"Brock? What're you doing out here?" Ash asked in curiosity.

Brock stopped when he finally reached the pair and leaned over to catch his breath, panting, before holding out his hand and showing Ash the Boulder Badge.

"You forgot this."

"A badge? I can't take this. I didn't beat you." Ash blinked, surprised that Brock would run all the way out here to give it to him even though he'd technically 'lost'.

"Nah...I lost to you. We both know if my brothers and sisters hadn't stopped the battle, you would've won. I must admit though. I never expected you to have taught your Scyther and Nidoran such moves and then combine them with a creative battle strategy. Most challengers just use type advantages like Grass or Water types. I'd say you deserve this badge more than the others I've seen." Brock spoke, with a smile full of respect for the younger trainer.

Ash found himself blushing from all the compliments, and Brock turned to look out at the lake. "To be honest, I've been wanting to become the greatest Pokemon Breeder. I study about Pokemon, I enjoy raising them more than I do making them battle. I've wanted to travel around to learn more about Pokemon and Breeding. But...I have to take care of all my little brothers and sisters. Ash, I want you to take this Badge and fulfill my dream. Will you do that for me?"

Before Ash could even think about answering, a sudden voice interrupted.

"Maybe it's time for you to follow your own dream."

"Flint?" Ash and Misty questioned, turning to face the newcomer as Flint took off his hat and his fake beard. Showing his true face. One that looked like an older version of Brock. To say Brock was surprised would win you understatement of the year award.

"Dad?"

"Yes, son. It's me. I had left to become a great Pokemon Trainer, but because I was such a failure I was too ashamed to come back home to my family. I must apologize for leaving you and my wife for so long. I'll take over the Gym and watch over all your brothers and sisters. You go fulfill your own dreams, son."

"First...there's a few things I must tell you." Brock replied seriously.

"After all these years, I understand you'd want to get a few things off your chest. So go ahead." Flint started, and blinked as Brock handed him a pencil and a notepad. And then went on telling his father the best way to take care of all his little brothers and sisters. Brock, of course, was talking at supersonic speed, making it hard for anyone to understand him.

"Wait, slow down." Cried Flint as he desperately tried to take notes.

Ash and Misty both laughed at the scene. It looked like they made a new friend. Ash held up the Boulder Badge to the light of the sun and smiled to himself. He was one step closer to realizing his dream.

**Nest up: Mt. Moon. What will our team face next? Will Misty ever find her little Cutey in Surskit? And will she ever get over her bug Phobia? Read and find out!**

**Finally, this Chapter is done. I have to say, writing a Pokemon Gym Battle is a little on the hard side. Hope you like it!**

**How do you all like the editing job that Cerberus does? He's debating writing his own stories. You should all convince him he's a good writer so he does!**

**Eevee evolution vote, so far:**

**1st: Espeon**

**2nd: Sylveon and Umbreon**

**3rd: Glaceon**

**4th: Leafeon**

**5th: Vaporeon and Jolteon**

**6th: Stay as an Eevee**

**7th: Flareon**

**Don't forget to review! We live for your comments. It gives us the motivation to continue.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Mt. Moon**

**Alright, we got 116 reviews! Thank you much!**

**I am so happy that we reached the 100-mark on reviews, and I have to say that I honestly believe I never would have hit that number if it wasn't for the greatest beta reader I've ever known.**

**CerberusLabrat. Show him some love, okay guys?**

**Let's not forget to thank the 205 Favorites and 209 Follows as well. Love you guys too. (CL: Though we'd love you more if you reviewed. 3)**

**Comment time!**

**Celestial Overlord: You'll have to wait and see what happens with Surskit and Misty.**

**Shadow wolf fang: Eevee's evolution is up for a vote, so you'll have to wait and see. And I agree, CL will make a fantastic writer.**

**3master: I am only worried about one right now, we'll see how the story goes. My top goal is to finish Ash's first Pokemon championship.**

**Writer Of Illusion: Thanks for the compliment. I am really trying to portray Ash, it is a struggle to keep Ash the way he is, but make him use his head at the same time. In my opinion Ash always had what it takes to be a master. When he applied himself he could come up with out of the box strategies, but he never used them until he lost a battle and then the next challenge, he just did the same thing over and over again. My goal is to keep Ash the character, but just make him stop, use his head, and KEEP his knowledge. As for Unova or Sinnoh Pokemon, you'll have to wait and see. Me and CL are trying to make sure Ash doesn't go Pokemon catch crazy and will actually have to use the Pokemon he catches. Each Pokemon we choose has a reason and has a personality that will add to the story. (CL: Although, I think it'll be kind of unavoidable for him not to be catch crazy during Kanto, what with Gary always bragging about how many Pokemon he caught and that general idea of 'Gotta Catch 'Em All'. It's hard to break. I think by Johto we should have him break it though.)**

**Fyrflame: I don't think that there are any Flareon haters, last time Vaporeon didn't have a single vote. So...for the the fifth time, we'll just have to wait and see.**

**Random bug: Great selection of guys for a fun yaoi teaser. But I'm not sure which main guy will chase after Ash. They do make a good teaser though. I might bring Bill in more because it was a shame we never saw much of him in the show, but he was a main character in all the games. But remember, I do not have a set pairing for Ash. Like I said, there are some that will like him more than others, but Ash is not paired up yet. I know CL is pushing with Altoshipping. (CL: You better damn well believe I am! It's just so cute!)**

**Dawn Ketchum Fan: I understand that you're questioning if his siblings did that during all of his matches, but if you read the chapter carefully, they DID say that 'we don't want to see Onix get hurt _again_'. Which would imply that Onix has been losing a lot and the little saw that him getting hurt was hurting their brother. As for what Ash did, remember, the guy has too big of a heart for his own good. Do you really think he'd be that cold?**

**Lightningblade49: As always, I love the review. I love the Sword Dance idea and you'll have to wait to see Misty's development on her bug phobia. She has quite a ways to go yet, also have to wait to see what Pokemon, but good idea.**

**Revan Lord of Revenge: I agree, I love those too. That's why I decided to give one a try, my way. Again, on Pokemon, you'll have to wait and see. P.S. If you give an idea for personality and what they might bring to Ash's team, they might have a higher chance of being picked, I'm not just adding random Pokemon, and CL is even stricter than I am. (CL: Also, KotOR ftw.)**

**Vital Info: I love your review. Thank you so much. And thank you for pointing out some of my weak points. I am a new author and this is my first real story, so I do appreciate you giving help and pointing out my flaws, and not being an ass about it and flaming me. I will try to stop telling people what Pokemon Ash will get and leave it more of a mystery. As for randomly pulling things out of his jacket, if you remember back to the second chapter, Ash went through his mom's old trainer stuff, that was where he got the few potions, as well as the heal ball, along with the pokemon weights and his own weights. I'll also point out that she had berries, in which everyone knows Ms. Ketchum has a garden, and that's where she got the berries from. In my view, I turn her flower garden into a berry garden, where she'll grow berries and give them to Professor Oak, and he'll transport them to Ash. I hope that explains some of where Ash got his stuff. (CL: That being said, I agree that me and Luna do need to start thinking of reasonable limits as to what he carries around with him.)**

**not an eevee fan: I'm sorry if you think Eevee is overdone, But I still want Ash to have one.**

**Now, for the story!**

Ash Ketchum, along with his new friend Brock, a young man that had decided to join him on his journey, and his previous traveling companions; Misty, who was walking, strangely enough, alongside Blade...Ash's ever-so-calm Scyther. Granted, still three feet away from her, and on his shoulder, his affectionate little yellow electric mouse; Storm.

What surprised Brock the most was that Ash usually had all of his Pokemon out when they traveled, minus Bulma; a headstrong Magikarp that, unfortunately...because this rather upset the reddish colored fish, could only move in water, and was unable to accompany her trainer. To say the former Pewter City Gym leader was amazed at how strong the little fish was, for being a _Magikarp_, was an understatement. It also didn't take a genius to figure out that Bulma was probably the one Pokemon that Ash owned who loved her trainer the most. Possibly from the fact that he took that extra time to give _her_, a lowly Magikarp, his attention as a trainer, or maybe it was just the love he showed her. He'd quickly heard the story of how Ash had accidentally caught her, and trained her against and alongside himself. There was no doubt in his mind that when...not if, _when_, she evolved into a Gyarados, she would be practically unstoppable.

Then there was Aednat. A hyperactive little spitfire of a Nidoran, currently amusing herself by running around and between every ones legs, like it was some kind of game. Or like she just didn't want to sit still. Where she got the endless energy was anyone's guess. Brock had already lost count of the amount of times that she'd tried to pounce on Blade and surprise him, but no matter how quiet and sneaky she'd been, it was as if the eternally calm Scyther had some sort of sixth sense. Or eyes in the back of his head, always dodging her with a graceful sidestep, but still, the little poison mouse didn't stop trying, determined that eventually, she would catch him off guard.

Speaking of Blade...The Scyther that had utterly destroyed his Geodude in the gym match. Forever calm, even in the middle of the battle. It appeared as if nothing could faze the mantis. He was also very polite; never walking in front of Ash. Or anyone, if he could help it, and always showing the utmost respect to his trainer and any other living being. In the few nights Brock had already spent with the group, he'd caught Blade training with Ash, doing simple breathing exercises, and if that had been it, he wouldn't have thought it interesting. But when Ash pulled out the sword and started having a sparring match against Blade's arms...that was a different story. Brock was easily the oldest person in the group, and still, he'd never seen a Pokemon actually train _with _it's trainer.

Even as he was searching for the next subjects to muse, he had to duck just to avoid the two 'lovebirds', Ace the Spearow apparently running away from Nika the Pidgeotto after having said something that irked the larger female. The two bickered, and you didn't have to be able to understand what they said to know when they were. And yet, they were always around each other. If Ace was perched on Ash's shoulder, then Nika would perch on top of his backpack. If Ace was flying around for the sake of flying around, then Nika would be in the air right alongside him, and vice versa. To say the least, if you saw one, you wouldn't have to look far to find the other.

Finally, there was the aforementioned Pikachu. Storm was obviously the leader of Ash's little group; second in command next to Ash. The electric mouse would keep the rest of Ash's Pokemon in order, whether it was to stop the bickering birds, calming a headstrong fish, or settling down a little poisonous ball of pure energy. The mouse did have a lot on his plate, but thankfully, he had a type advantage against three of his four charges...He wouldn't ever have to worry about Blade, honestly. But along with the responsibility came with being the most respected Pokemon in the group. Obviously a true leader.

To say the least, Ash was a one-of-a-kind trainer, with one-of-a-kind Pokemon, and the breeder that found himself tagging along couldn't wait to see what lay ahead for their mutual journey.

Misty was on the first of many steps in the long road of attempting to get over her Entomophobia. Walking with Blade, even though he was a bug-type, she was finally starting to relax in the giant mantis' presence. He was a relaxed Pokemon that seemed to understand when she would get over-emotional with him. Looking up at the landscape, she hoped she could see another glance of her little cutey. Surskit. She had discovered soon after leaving Pewter City that Ash had been right about him not leaving her; she could see a glance of him every now and then, and the night before, had witnessed Blade giving him food and conversing with him. But whenever she would approach, the little blue water bug would run off. Obviously, she hadn't earned her forgiveness yet, or maybe she had, but just hadn't earned it's trust? Either way, it was willing to see if she would, or even could, change for him. So she just had to keep trying.

"How much farther until we reach Mt. Moon?" The newest member of the group questioned, glancing towards the guy with the map; Ash.

"Not much longer." The young boy replied, glancing to the screen on his Pokedex to verify his own statement.

"Doesn't that name sound so romantic?" The orange-haired girl piped in, from her position; she was walking on Ash's left, Brock on his right, Blade behind him, Aednat running a figure...something, around everyone, and Ace and Nika swooping down to join Storm in his perch on Ash's body.

The kid quickly adjusted to having 70 pounds of Pokemon weighing him down, how he could do it was anyone's guess, what with all the weights that were sitting in his backpack.

Brock shot a smile towards the female companion of the group. "People say that a meteor crashed into the mountain back in prehistoric times."

This piqued Ash's interest, as he found himself looking at the mountain, which loomed over the trail and the forest before them, looking for any sign of damage said meteor may have caused. "A meteor?"

"Do you think that's true?" Misty questioned in response.

Brock closed his eyes (CL: But his eyes are always closed...) and put his hand under his chin. "Yes, the meteor is called the Moon Stone."

Cerulean eyes sparkled as Misty held her hands out in front of her and seemed to...skip. "Now _that's _romantic!"

"Scyther." Blade piped in, the three humans unable to interpret what he'd said, but unable to miss the dry tone the bug had added to...whatever he'd said, while looking in Ash's general direction.

Whatever he said, it got Ace and Nika screeching at him angrily. Loud enough that Ash winced from the loud noise.

Any laughter that Storm and Aednat could have shared over the exchange, or confusion Ash, Brock, and Misty could have exchanged, was interrupted by an alarming scream, drawing Ash's attention further up the trail. "Look, over there!" He lifted his arm to direct the eyes of his companions, and Misty and Brock both trailed his finger out to a gigantic swarm of Zubat. "It's a whole flock of Zubat!" The Pokedex that was still in Ash's other hand perked up, scanning the members of this swarm.

_**Zubat**_

_A blind Pokemon with supersonic powers, Zubat live in caves and hate to fly outside in daylight._

Next, they saw a man on the ground, trying to curl into a ball and make himself as small as possible to avoid getting attacked by the swarm.

"Storm, Thundershock!" The yellow rodent jumped...literally...into action, leaping from Ash's shoulder with his red cheeks sparking once to charge before he unleashed a wave of electricity into the flock, causing the bats to scatter quickly. "Pikaaaa...chuuuuuu!"

One Zubat in particular was rather unlucky; where the rest of the Zubat had either not been in the line of fire, or had managed to dodge it, and quickly dispersed; this one had been hit square and was falling to the ground, electricity sparking from it's convulsing body. It would have hit the ground pretty hard, had Ash not dove and caught the poor thing before it hit the ground. The electrical shocks still emanating from the bat transferred to Ash, but seeing as Pikachu was Ash's alarm clock every morning, he was more than used to it by now. The rest of the Zubat managed to fly away, leaving their fallen comrade behind.

The rest of the gang caught up, just as the man seemed to relax with a groan. "Are you okay?" Ash questioned, getting up and dusting himself off with the Zubat still in his arms.

The man jumped up so fast he scared the group, his arms instantly wrapped around Ash tightly. "You guys are the greatest!"

All responses Ash attempted to conjure up for the _very _thankful man were lost in the guys clothes, completely muffled by all the fabric.

Of course, the rest of the group, including his own Pokemon, were looking on with wides and laughing at his misfortune of being absolutely crushed in a bear hug. "I'm talking super-fantastic! I'm talking two thumbs up! The best rescue ever! Hahaaaa-aaAAAAHHH!"

Oh. Apparently the Zubat in Ash's arms had chosen this moment to regain it's bearings and chomp down on the weird man that was suffocating it in his clothes.

Brock took a look at the Zubat that was still suffering from the electricity in it's body; it's movements stuttered and sluggish. Obviously paralyzed. "I don't have any Paralyze Heals..." the Breeder informed in regret.

"And I'm out of Cheri Berries." Ash mumbled as he glanced down at the suffering Zubat; shooting a glare at Ace. Blaming the Spearow for eating all of the spicy berries. Each of his Pokemon seemed to have their preferred flavor. Which was good; it meant nobody was fighting over their food. Ace loved Spicy foods, but hated Bitter ones. Nika loved Sour, but hated Spicy. Bulma loved Dry, and hated Bitter. Blade loved Bitter, and hated Spicy. Aednat loved Sweet, and hated Sour. And Storm...well, Storm just didn't seem to care. But considering how spicy Cheri berries were, and the fact that Ace was the only one that really liked Spicy...it was pretty obvious who the culprit of the sudden lack of the berries was. And the fact that Ace was squawking and pointing at Nika as if he were blaming her didn't help his case in the slightest; Ash having been observant enough to know Nika hated the things.

"Why don't you catch it, that way your Professor could heal it at his lab?" Misty questioned, piping up with a useful idea.

"Great idea, Misty." Ash admitted, pulling out a standard red and white sphere, and tapping Zubat in the head with it. The Zubat disappeared with red light, and then as soon as the Pokeball clicked to confirm the capture, so too did the Pokeball itself disappear; the red light shooting towards Ash's Pokedex.

"Such compassion in a trainer so young." This statement from the random guy they'd saved earned him odd looks from everyone else. The man jumped up from his antics and once again grabbed Ash's hands. "Did I mention how grateful I am?"

The young trainer quickly nodded, not wanting a repeat of the smothering hug he'd been on the receiving end of just a few brief moments ago. "Yeah, um...Anyway, why were the Zubat attacking you Mister...?"

The man jumped at the mere mention of the last word. "Never call me Mister! My names Seymour! Seymour the Scientist! Knowledge! Research! I'm Seymour the Scientist!"

Eight giant sweatdrops were steadily making their way down eight heads that were glued on the man and his ridiculous actions.

Seymour then turned around to lead them towards the cave. "See? The cave is all lit up inside. Somebody has put these lights up throughout the whole cave. But the Pokemon need the dark. These lights are upsetting them and making them confused." The Scientist informed sadly while leading them down the cave, sure enough, hanging along the walls of the cave were a string of lights.

"Which is probably why the Zubat left the cave and attacked you." Brock deduced, then his attention was drawn to all the suffering Pokemon beneath the lights. "Look! These Paras are planting their mushrooms everywhere. And all these lights are drying up the Sandshrew..."

Ash winced at all the hurting Pokemon, and his heart went out to them in compassion.

"Nika, could you use Sand-Attack on the Sandshrew and then use a Gust to cool all these Pokemon off? Ace...just...help her."

"Prriiidge-otto!"

"Speaaaarrroow!"

As the two birds got to work, surprisingly working very well with each other; Nika doing exactly as she was ordered, and Ace surprising everyone by helping her Gust with a Whirlwind of his own. A move even Ash hadn't been aware Ace was capable of. It definitely wasn't in the known move pool for his species, so while Ash was thinking that Ace had just had the determination to do _something _to help, and that had led to him being able to do it, Brock was wondering if Ace's father was even a Spearow.

As they were doing this, their young trainer knelt down next to one of the smallest armadillos, which was panting. "Hey, it's going to be okay." The Sandshrew looked up at the boy and squeaked weakly. Ash gave a reassuring smile and started to scrub some sand onto it's body to try and cool it off. It closed it's eyes in contentment, the makings of a smile crossing it's face as it nuzzled into the trainer that was showing kindness to it. Both Brock and Misty had to smile at Ash's actions. Seymour simply blinked in astonishment.

"Misty, do you think you could call out your water Pokemon a help give these guys a little water?" Misty was torn from whatever thoughts she'd been having, quickly nodding in agreement and reaching down to grab two Pokeballs from her belt; a moment later, the group in the gave was joined by two Starfish, who wasted no time in getting to work; spinning in the air while shooting a weak water gun to give the suffering Pokemon in the cave a nice spray of cool water.

Seeing Misty's actions, and feeling the need to help himself, Brock knelt down near Ash and started to copy the younger boy; rubbing sand onto the other Sandshrew in the cave. "Storm. Do something about those lights, please." Ash requested, turning to his starter.

"Pika!" He was answered, before the rodent darted over to the wires that powered the lights, and began to chew on them, the lights starting to flicker, and then dim as his teeth made their way through the cord, Storm himself making sounds of contentment even as this happened; enjoying the electricity he was receiving.

"Blade, do you think you could track down the people responsible for this?"

"Scy." The Mantis answered with a nod. "Good. Take Aednat with you and if you find anything, come back here immediately."

"Nido-Nido!" The spitfire piped up excitedly, jumping repeatedly over towards Blade. "And don't engage with whoever it is causing this. Just come back and report, alright?" Ash spoke...mostly to the fight-hungry Nidoran.

"Niiido..." Aednat pouted, now upset that she wouldn't get to fight anyone, before running off to catch up with Blade as he walked away to further explore the cave.

"Such a young trainer, with such a big heart...That's why I'm here as well. To find the troublemakers that are attacking these caves." Seymour stated, causing the others in the group that were paying any lick of attention to him to blink.

"Troublemakers? Why attack a cave?" Misty asked, confused as to what purpose attacking this cave would serve.

The scientist lowered his head. "I'm afraid it's because of the Moon Stone..."

Now they all stopped what they were doing to look at him. "The moon stone?" Ash voiced the question they were all thinking.

Seymour looked down at Ash and smiled as he thought of the object they were discussing. "Exactly. The Moon Stone is an awesome boulder that's a million years old, or older. Deep in the caves the meteor is hidden. Though no other explorer has found this legendary rock from space."

The three humans glanced at each other over the scientist's antics. "We studied it's fragments for many an hour, and it increases a Pokemon's power. And that's why the attackers are here! They've come to take the Moon Stone...or so I fear." Seymour frowned with worry.

"The Moon Stone..." Ash repeated his previous statement, blinking.

"Ever since I was a little boy, I believe that Pokemon came to Earth from outer space." Seymour voiced, making all the others go wide-eyed. "From outer space?!" They all exclaimed in stereo.

The quirky scientist grinned. "Yes!" Drawing strange expressions from all of them. "And where, you ask, is the space craft that brought them to Earth? In this cave. It's the Moon Stone." Seymour theorized.

"It...sure is an original theory." Misty admitted.

"But don't you see?! It means it belongs with the Pokemon! We humans must not take it from them!" The Scientist yelled, jumping forward, grabbing Ash's hands, and then staring deeply into the younger trainer eyes with an intent look.

"You agree with me don't you?!" Ash blinked once more, and tilted his head to the side.

"I'm not sure if you mean your theory about where the Pokemon came from or the Moon Stone. But anything is possible when to comes to where Pokemon came from.. Maybe there are some that came from space. As for the Moon Stone, if the Pokemon had it first who are we to steal that is theirs. Right?"

"YES! SOMEONE UNDERSTANDS!" Seymour shouted, once more hauling Ash into a bear hug.

"Mmmph!" Ash gave a muffled complaint, waving his arms frantically, trying to escape from the weird guys' grasp.

Thankfully, Ash was saved when a little pink ball hopped by. Bringing everyone out of the funny scene that was happening right before their eyes. Whatever it was, it was jumping up and down, it's little arms contentedly holding on to a bluish rock. Taking this chance to slide out of the crazy scientists' arms, Ash pulled his Pokedex out and waited as it scanned the little...pink...fluffball.

_**Clefairy**_

_The Fairy Pokemon. This impish Pokemon is friendly and peaceful. It is believe to live inside Mt. Moon, although very few have ever been seen by humans._

"Oooh! It's so cute!" Misty squealed, kneeling down to get closer to it, only for the little pink ball to happily bounce off the wall and skip away, holding on to it's prize. As Ash went to follow after it, he found his foot bouncing off of something. Something that gave way.

Peering down to see what he had run into, he found a Sandshrew. "Oh, sorry..." He apologized to the armadillo. Only to receive a gentle "Sandshrew..." In response, as it rubbed it's golden head into his leg.

The tender moment of affection from the Armadillo was broken as they heard a cry from the direction the Clefairy had skipped off in. All those present immediately shot to their feet and ran off to find the source. Each step, Ash felt his leg becoming heavier and heavier. When they finally reached the area the cry had emanated from, they saw the Clefairy from earlier, being cornered by what appeared to be a Meowth.

"Is that a Meowth?" Ash questioned, blinking.

When he heard this, of course, Meowth recognized the voice and turned slightly to look towards it; immediately finding the trainer with the magic hands. Immediately, the cat Pokemon turned away from threatening the Clefairy and sat down on the floor of the cave, tilting it's head. "Meow." It stated.

Misty was looking at the cream color cat in question. "What's a Meowth doing here?"

Ash didn't share her questioning nature, he just walked over to the Pokemon and knelt down. He then proceeded to reach out and began to pet the Meowth behind it's ears, leading it to crawl into his lap and purr in contentment.

The Clefairy, was, needless to say; confused. One moment, that Meowth had it backed into a corner, the next...it couldn't seem to care less.

"Hey, are you okay?" A voice reached out, and in a bid to see who was speaking to her, the pink puffball looked up to find a dark-skinned teenager with spiky brown hair. And eyes that seem squinted shut.

"Clefairy." It nodded, looking closer at him and finding that it liked the vibe he was giving off.

As if it wasn't dark enough already, the remaining lights in the cave suddenly cut out, dropping the group into pitch blackness. "Hey! Turn on the lights!" A new, yet not unfamiliar voice screamed out, female. Joined a split second later by that of a male. "What was tha-aaaat!"

To add to the turn of events, the head of a little blue Nidoran popped out of the ground right in front of Ash, apparently Aednat having dug a hole to get to him. "Nido-Nido." She stated, addressing her trainer.

"You found something, Aednat?"

"Nido!" It was a nod in response, as the rest of her body launched out of the ground and settled down on the floor of the cave next to him.

Annnd then the foot steps of someone running echoed through the cave towards them.

"There's a serial killer in here!" The male voice yelled, panicked.

"Out of my way, James, the killers go after the pretty girls first!"

"What are you talking about, Jessie, there is always one girl who lives!"

"No way!"

"Yes way! The final guy usually dies saving the girl!"

The two voices came closer and closer, until they ran into an area where one single lantern remained, powered on and glowing. They ended up right in the middle of the group. A man with blue hair and a woman with red, both wearing white and black uniforms with a giant red R on the front of their jackets.

"Who are you? Are you the two that are causing all the trouble in these caves?" Seymour the scientist just _had _to ask.

The pair stopped, and looked at each other. The face of the woman breaking out into a smile. "Trouble?"

Her smile was mirrored off of her blue-haired companion. "Make it double."

"To protect the world from devastation!" The redhead shouted, doing a flip;

"To unite all people from within our nation!" The male added, spinning to her side.

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!" The theatrics continued with the woman blowing a kiss into the air.

"To extend our reach to the stars above." The male pulled a rose, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Jessie."

"James."

"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"

And then the cat in Ash's arms groaned in disappointment, pushing himself out of his comfortable spot on Ash's lap; jumping by the pair and landing on it's two rear feet. "Meowth! That's right!"

"Team Rocket!" Ash and Misty growled, both being familiar with the pair of criminals; this was Brock's first encounter with the two morons.

"That's right, kiddies. Now how about hand over that Clefairy and the Moon Stone. The Moon Stone will make our Pokemon stronger. So hand it over!" The redhead...Jessie...demanded.

Without a second thought, the pink fluffball jumped into the arms of the person that made it feel the safest; Brock, and cuddled as close into his body as it possibly could, keeping the moonstone safely between them at all times too. "No way."

"Suit yourself. Go, Koffing!" James declared, grabbing a red and white sphere from his belt.

Before he could release the gasbag though, a quiet hiss came from behind the pair.

"Ah! It's the killer!" The criminals screamed, hugging each other closely as a lone figure slowly walked out of the darkness.

"Scyther."

Cricket. Cricket. Cricket.

The cave exploded in laughter, Misty, for one, having tears in her eyes from her laughter within seconds. "I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets scared of bugs."

Blade tilted his head to the side, walking towards Ash. "Scyther?" He questioned, pointing one of his razor sharp arms towards the bad guys.

"Right, come on guys, surround them." Ash ordered, remembering what was going on.

"You think you can take us?" Jessie asked indignantly, growling at the nerve this kid had...before she found someone tapping on her shoulder. "Uh...Jessie? Take a look..."

The apprehension in James' voice didn't dissuade Jessie in the least. "Let's see, we have two birds, two starfish, an electric mouse, a poisonous little runt, and a giant bug with blade arms. So that there, is seven Pokemon." Meowth counted. Jessie still didn't seem bothered.

"No worries, we can still wieeeeeeoooooooouch!" She was cut off, jumping high into the air and holding her posterior, screaming in pain. "Get off! Get off!"

It appeared Misty's Shellder had decided to clamp onto...yeah.

And the victim was screaming in pain, running back and forth inside the cave, trying to get it off. One particular trainer in the group was wincing in sympathy pain from his own experience with that damn shellfish..."I hear ya..." he muttered under his breath.

"Shellder, let go." Misty ordered, an order that was immediately followed...and followed up, by the Pokemon blowing a raspberry at the redhead it had been attached to. "Why you...!"

"Storm, hit 'em with a Thunderbolt!"

"What?"

"Pikaaa...chuuuu!"

Any darkness in the cave was removed as it was suddenly lit with a brilliant golden-yellow light, the trio of criminals being blasted with thousands of volts worth of electricity packed into one single bolt of energy.

Smoke filled the cave, causing a couple of those present...mainly Seymour, to start coughing. And when said smoke cleared, there was no sign of the criminal group; Brock still had Clefairy in his arms, so they hadn't achieved their goal either.

"So...that was fun."

"Clefairy." The pink puffball urged, grabbing onto Brock's vest, while still in his arms, and tugging on it, as it waved the hand that held the shard of the moon stone off in another direction.

"You want us to follow you?" Brock questioned, getting the picture rather quickly.

"Cle-faaairy!" The puffball nodded, jumping out of his arms and bouncing away down the cave. Now all the group had to do was follow the little bouncing...thing.

As they started though, Ash stumbled over the weight on his leg, which he just now registered as having never left. Finally, he decided to look down to see the cause of it.

To find a golden Armadillo clinging to his leg tightly, legs wrapped tight around his calve. "A Sandshrew?" Ash questioned, blinking in surprise.

"Ah, yes. It's the same one you helped earlier, young man. It's been clinging to your leg ever since then." Seymour informed.

"Wait...this _whole _time?" Ash asked, turning back down to face the Sandshrew, having turned away to look at Seymour while he was being talked to. Simple manners his mother had drilled into his head all his childhood...The little golden-yellow Armadillo nodded, nuzzling it's face into his pants leg. "Sand."

"Wow, look at that." Misty's voice brought everyone's attention to an opening in the cave. Inside was a gigantic crystalline rock; surrounding it were many Clefairy, and all of them were singing. Rather well, at that.

"This is amazing." Brock mused in awe, before feeling a tug on his leg, he looked down, to see the Clefairy that led them here, holding a piece of the moon stone. It smiled at him, and waved, before bouncing off towards the giant rock in the middle of the...The best word for it was honestly 'room'. It then proceeded to place it's stone in a free spot within a ring of similar shards of varying sizes. The circle, now complete, began to glow. And dozens more Clefairy appeared, as well as some Clefable. Some of the Clefairy were bouncing around, while the rest were singing.

"What are they doing?" Misty wondered. Then froze as she heard...something, something that didn't fit with the sounds the Clefairy were making.

In one swift motion, the group turned in unison, to see Team Rocket standing at the cave entrance. "Again?" Ash growled under his breath, beginning to wonder when these guys would give up. (CL: heheheheheeee...)

"Yes, twerp. We're back. And we decided since you didn't want to give us a piece of the Moon Stone, we'll just take the whole thing." Jessie explained, a rather smug look covering her face as Meowth pressed a button on a quite simple remote, and a giant claw came out of the cave entrance behind them. It grabbed the Moon Stone, and began to lift it into the air.

"You want a rock, then try this!" Brock shouted, pulling out one of his Pokeballs. "Onix, go!"

The giant rock-snake let out a mighty roar as soon as it materialized.

"Storm, attack!"

Onix and the Pikachu soon found themselves up against Ekans and Koffing.

"Ekans, use Dig!"

"Koffing, Smokescreen!"

A thick cloud of smoke filled the clearing, sending Ash into a coughing fit. "I don't think so! Storm, Aednat, Dig and follow Ekans! Nika and Ace, get rid of this smoke!"

"Pika!" "Nido!" "Prrriidge-ootto!" "Speeaaarrow!"

The blue and yellow rodents wasted no time in burrowing into the ground, following after the purple snake. Which was kind of amusing in hindsight. Didn't snakes usually hunt mice? The two lovebirds, in tandem, soared up and used their wings to generate enough airflow to blow away the smokescreen. With the last of the smoke blowing away, the group saw the tip of the Moon Stone start to disappear.

"Oh no you don't! Onix, grab the Moon Stone and hold it down with Bind!"

The stone snake followed it's trainers command, wrapping it's head, and slithering the rest of it's body around the moon stone before settling all of it's weight square onto the object, and adding what strength it could muster from the part of it still connected to the ground to drag the fabled stone back towards it's proper resting place.

"No! Do something Meowth!" The female member of Team Rocket ordered. "I'm trying!" Meowth replied, pushing the button on the remote repeatedly, as if that simple act would add more power to whatever mechanism was trying to steal the moon stone.

It was a tug of war between the enormous snake and the metallic claw.

Meanwhile, the _other _snake burst out of the ground with two rodents beneath it; one with cheeks sparking, the other, doing a little dance of excitement and kicking up dust as she enjoyed her chance to fight. "Ekans!" Jessie called out to her Pokemon.

"Koffing, Tackle those Pokemon!"

**(Ok CL How This?)**

The purple-gray floating gas bag charged forward; flying straight at the two rodents. "Dodge, guys!" Ash willed, but he hadn't even needed to say the words; Aednat and Storm both jumping in opposite directions as soon as they'd seen Koffing flying in their direction. Both of them easily making it out of the way, but the toxic Pokemon didn't slow down; smashing into the wall. Its body flatten a little, as it bounce right off the wall. Like when you bounce a ball of concrete wall it came right back. straight toward Misty!

"Ah!" Misty cried out as the ball-shaped Pokemon flew backwards towards her. She stood there in fear while the poisonous ball of doom flew straight towards her; time slowed down to a crawl, that adrenaline rush of fear. Everything moving in slow motion, while at the same time remaining fast, too fast to react, but so slow that every detail etched itself into her mind. Just as it registered in her mind that there was no way out, a blue object came out of nowhere from the side, smacking into the purple ball and knocking it off course.

"Surskit!" The blue 'object' cried out towards it's target. As if it were reprimanding the ball for being careless and reckless. Emerald orbs widened as the blue blur took shape, forming into a now familiar bug with a yellow head. "Surskit?" She breathed. "Is that you? You're back?! Oh my God! My little cutey is back!"

The orange-haired girl collapsed down to her knees next to the water-bug and wrapped her arms around him tightly, hugging him into her chest as tears of relief, both from her rescue from the threat of Koffing, and the fact that the Pokemon she'd driven away with her fears and misconceptions had returned to her. To give her a second chance.

"I am so sorry! I missed you so much..." Misty murmured against Surskit's body, not even moving as it's long, thin appendages hugged her face and he cried along with her. She'd actually missed him.

Violet eyes widened and red lips curled upwards into a sinister smirk at the moment. "Oh, how sweet. A touching moment with such a rare Pokemon."

The Emerald color in Misty's eyes quickly changed to an acidic glare as those words registered in her mind, and she couldn't help the feral growl of rage that bubbled up in her throat; directed at the female thief. Her arms tightened even further around Surskit, somehow both dreading, and knowing full well what the next words would be.

"Ekans, Poison Sting and get that cute, rare Pokemon!"

"Ekans!" A responding hiss came from the purple snake just as it opened it's mouth to shoot a stream of poison venom at the pair.

Two things happened at this point, in seeming unison; on Surskit's end, it did a graceful twirling backflip out of Misty's arms and onto his feet in front of the orange-haired girl, wide eyes narrowing in rage at the fact that this _stupid_ snake and it's trainer would endanger a human so recklessly.

At the same time, Misty's eyes narrowed, the shining acidic glare off of her emerald greens glinting in the dim light of the cave. How _dare _they try to take her little Cutey away from her.

"I don't think so! Surskit, cancel it out with-"

A stream of blue bubbles exploded from Surskit's mouth in the direction of the venom as he called out his name. "Suurskiiiit!"

"-Bubblebeam!"

The venom was caught in a wall of bubbles, the water from the attack both blocking the poison in some cases, and in others, simply weighing it down to the point it couldn't reach the pair.

In the meantime, Onix was having a bit of trouble attempting to pull the moon-stone back to Earth, Ash racking his brain, trying to the think of a way to get that damn metal claw to let go of the thing...until it clicked. His eyes trailing to Meowth's form to watch the scratch cat continually hitting the button on that remote, trying to force the claw to work harder in the tug-of-war match against Brock's rock-snake. That was it.

"Ace, get that remote!" The black-haired ten year old called out to his first bird, the small brick colored flying-type's eyes honed onto the remote almost instantly, sharp amber eyes locking onto the hand-held object with an almost frightening level of focus, before he soared up, flipped onto his back, and then dived towards Meowth sharply. "Spearow!"

Gravity aided the little bird as it flew at breakneck speed down; Meowth had no time to react as Ace's beak ripped through the metal, plastic, and electronics that made up the components of the remote. As the pieces of the remote scattered towards the ground, Ace swooping upwards just in time to _not _knock himself out on the floor, but still far too late to do much but smash into it and tumble across the ground right to Nika's feet in a daze, so too did the claw suddenly lose all fight against Onix, the giant moon-stone crashing to the floor with a resounding thud, and force that shook the area enough that almost everyone lost their footing.

"Why you..."

"Jessie, look!"

Sure enough, the Clefairy around the two opposing groups of trainers began to wave their small hands back and forth across the air in front of them, softly singing their names in a gentle lullaby. Seymour's eyes widened in an instant.

"Metronome! This is gonna hurt!" The scientist cried out, as he attempted to cover his face and head with his arms, turning away.

Indeed, if the choreographed arm movements and the singing was fascinating, it was only to the extent of a Venus fly-trap; catch your attention and prevent you from moving, as the attack that followed was much akin to a Hyper Beam. A giant, super-powered Hyper Beam driven by the efforts of dozens of Pokemon, all adding to the effort. The entire clearing was blasted; sending Team Rocket away into the sky with their standard cry, and shattering the Moon Stone into pieces that fell all around the room; sparkles of Moon Dust scattered into the air, twinkling in the light.

These shards of the giant stone wasn't the only thing eye-catching about the ordeal, however; as the gorgeous sparkles of light fell onto the Clefairy, those touched by the shards began to glow and change shape; growing larger, into Clefable.

"It seems the Moon Stone can cause some Pokemon to evolve..." Seymour observed in awe, as he realized exactly what had been happening. Once again, the ritual that had been interrupted resumed, but it was no longer a prayer; with some of the Clefairy having received the favor and been blessed with evolution, the ritual had now morphed into thanksgiving to whatever higher power had deemed them worthy, or allowed them to continue on as Clefairy for whatever higher purpose remained in mind.

"That's it. I'm staying here with the Clefairy and Celfable. These creatures are truly fascinating, and I want to learn more about their bond with the moon and the stars." Seymour declared, a smile ghosting the edges of his mouth.

Ash answered with his own grin. "Well, I hope your research proves to be successful!"

The group spent the rest of the night inside of Mt. Moon, taking their time to rest from the adventurous day that they'd been sucked into, inside the clearing, even later that night, the dust from the Moon Stone sparkled against the flickering light from the fire, a makeshift fire-pit made out of smaller pieces of the moon-stone and fueled by dead branches from the trees outside.

The group was chatting amongst themselves around the fire in this cozy environment, Misty wasting no time to cuddle with her returned Cutey.

"I thought you said you were scared of bugs." Brock pointed out, having quickly caught that.

"I am, but Surskit is an exception to the rule, he's my little Cutey!"

As if to spite her, Surskit took this time to jump out of her arms, onto the floor, and extending one thin appendage out to Blade; the sword-armed mantis that was sitting beside her like the zen master that he might as well have been. Her face paled quite a bit and she had to shake her head to calm her nerves. Despite the utter control that Blade showed, just...the way his joints moved, the sounds his wings made when they flapped...the fact that he was easily her size, and his arms were _freaking razor blades _did nothing but bring up her fears.

"I'm...still working on Blade. I know he won't hurt me...But it's going to take some time to get over my bug phobia..."

"At least you're willing to learn." Ash piped up, stoking the fire with the end of a stick he was wielding. Misty's face flushed a light pink at this and she nodded in agreement.

"Cleffa!"

A little Clefairy-like creature hopped up into Brock's lap, and before the (former) Gym leader could react, it tapped an empty Pokeball on his belt and got sucked in with that iconic beam of red light. There was no shaking as the ball instantly dinged to confirm a successful capture. The air fell completely silent, as Brock slowly grabbed the Pokeball off of his belt, and brought it up to stare at it, almost in complete disbelief as to what had just occurred. Trying to process what had happened. One moment he was looking on from the side as Ash and Misty discussed the girls fear of bugs, the next...

A chuckle broke his thoughts. "I am usually against a Clefairy being captured, but it seems that little girl didn't give you a choice."

"...Huh?" Brock mumbled, still blinking cluelessly at the red-and-white sphere in his hand. Ash and Ace both found themselves chuckling as they recalled a similar incident that had happened between themselves. Speaking of Ace...

Ash glanced over at his original flying-type. The brick colored bird was covered in bruises; the crash to Earth after dealing with that remote had, while not strong enough to knock him out, definitely done a number on him. That wasn't what caught Ash's eye. Ace knew enough that if he was hurt to a point he needed help, Ash would willingly use a potion or an Oran berry to help him out.

No, what caught Ash's eye was Nika standing next to her rival, bickering with him, as always, in that Poke-speech language that he couldn't understand, but could easily recognize for what it was, but the entire effect of the bickering was ruined by the fact that she had her wing around him, that and she'd grabbed his food and took it to him...

Probably just doing it so she could lord it over him later, nothing to worry about.

"So what about you, young trainer? Are you going to catch that Sandshrew yet? You know it's not nice to keep a lady waiting." Seymour tsk'd, waving a finger at Ash disapprovingly.

Ash, having been completely distracted by his thoughts on his birds, blinked twice, and followed the scientist's finger. Down to his leg, where, sure enough, was that same Sandshrew from earlier, still clinging to his leg. Just snuggling against his jeans, eyes closed in contentment and mild slumber; not really asleep, not truly awake.

"...Are you telling me she's been holding onto me this whole time?!"

(CL: _You are surrounding...all my surroundings, sounding down the mountain-range...of my left-side brain, you are surrounding...all my surroundings, twisting the kaleidoscope...behind both of my eyes...and I'll be holding on to you!_ ...ahem. Carry on folks.)

The aforementioned Sandshrew simply opened her eyes a crack just to show to Ash that she'd heard what he'd said, and gave him a nod. He fell backwards, anime-style, causing all Pokemon present to crack up in laughter. Except Blade, but even he looked rather amused.

"Is this normal?" Brock questioned, blinking at the scene.

"Looks like it." Misty answered, trying to think on it, but as of yet, she could not think of a normal Pokemon capture with Ash; he seemed to just draw the creatures to him, and they came with him willingly. It wasn't so much that he caught them, as they caught him.

In the meantime, Ash, try as he might, could not pry the armadillo wrapped around his leg off from her snuggling. He sighed in defeat. "Alright, so you really want to join my team?" He questioned to the cuddling ground-type, receiving a tired, but contented nod, causing Ash to pull out a red and white sphere and hold it down towards her.

The Sandshrew simply tapped it with her head and put up no resistance whatsoever as she allowed herself to be caught.

The next morning; after sleeping on the floor of the cave; Ash completely trapped between two roosting birds, Blade, Storm, Aednat, and the as-of-yet unnamed Sandshrew...currently with him only until he could arrive at a Pokemon Center to deposit one of the members of his team towards Professor Oak's lab, the group left Mt. Moon, bidding goodbye to Seymour and the small Pokemon colony.

When walking away, however, they heard an outcry from the members of the colony.

"Clefable!/Clefairy!" The group turned around to see that both a Clefairy and Clefable were coming their way.

"Don't tell me more of you want to join..." Brock joked, trailing off a the pink Pokemon came closer. His new Clefairy-like creature, perched on his back, decided to jump down to the ground. As the three Pokemon talked, they kept pointing at Ash, and, after coming to an agreement, the Clefable came forward and presented Ash with an oval shaped rock.

"Umm...are you giving this to me?" The young boy questioned as he took the 'rock', noting how smooth it was on the exterior almost instantly.

"Ash...That's an egg." Misty breathed out, eyes sparkling as she looked at it.

Holding the egg in front of him like it was some form of foreign object, Ash tilted his head to the side. "So...am I supposed to eat it o-OW!"

He had been interrupted by a light Iron Tail from Storm. _Why the hell did I teach him that again?_ Ash couldn't help but think, rubbing his face while Storm reprimanded him. "Pika."

"No, Ash, it's a Pokemon egg. There's a baby Pokemon inside it." Brock informed, looking closer at the egg. "Is it a Clefairy?"

All three of the pink Pokemon, all different, shook their heads no.

"Then what is it then?" Ash asked the question everyone was thinking.

"Clefairy."

The black-haired young boy looked at the pink trio blankly for a second...before turning to his electric rodent buddy for a translation. Storm listened to the three carefully, before turning to his trainer and repeating it, in his own version, slowly, and wagging one of the claws on his paw back and forth in disapproval.

"Pika."

"What do you mean secret?"

Looking down to the egg, he sighed to himself. The egg itself was silver and white, silver as a layer underneath with white swirling in in a graceful spiral.

"Okay, it's official. Traveling with you guys we might as well throw normal out the window. What's next? Ash saving the world?" Brock questioned incredulously, arms flying everywhere in disbelief at the turn of events this day and the day before had brought about.

Misty let out a giggle and nodded in agreement as Surskit hopped on top of her head from her shoulder, and joined his own nod to that of the group.

Ash held the egg close to him, and smiled as he could feel with warmth emanating from it. The life inside. "Eh, Normal is boring anyway."

It didn't take long for them to reach a crossroads, with a signpost pointing the different directions of each route, of particular importance to them; the path towards Cerulean City. However, there also happened to be something scribbled onto the sign in a corner. Brock leaned in closely to look at it, and furrowed his brow as he tried to decipher the handwriting and read it aloud.

"_Gary was here. Ash is a loser." _Ash's eyes went wide when he heard Brock read it out.

Fists clenched and the eyes narrowed back to normal...and then a bit further, burning with anger. "That Gary!"

**Okay, that's the end of that chapter. Holy crap, Cerberus, I send you a 13 page chapter to edit and you make it 20. 20!**

**(CL: ...Sorry. v.v)**

**Its ok I still think your best beta reader. You just make a whole lot better!**

**Anyway, Ash has caught two new Pokemon, and has a Mysterious Egg now, I have yet to come up with a nickname for those yet, so I will take suggestions. I bet none of you saw Brock catching Cleffa.**

**(CL: I did!)**

**You don't count.**

**(CL: -Sadface-)**

**Well, you might need to thank Lightningblade49 for that. I want each of the three to have one Pokemon to stay out of it's Pokeball. After much brainstorming for a Pokemon for Brock we came up with Cleffa. It's small and can also help Brock become a better breeder. One; because it's a baby. Two; because it can use calm mind, and three; because, when evolved, it can tell what a Pokemon is feeling. Overall, I think this'll be a perfect Pokemon for Brock to help him become a Pokemon breeder. Wait til you see the personality I have in mind for it!**

**Okay, that's it. You all know the drill. Review. Vote on the Eeveelution poll. I am really tired, so CL...do you have any comments you want to make?**

**(CL: I think we should ask everyone here what all they think we should change from the anime. So I'll bring up my three questions of the chapter and my remix of Skillet's "Rise":**

**Should we change the order that Ash gets his Gym badges in Kanto?**

**Should we change the order of the regions Ash travels to after Kanto?**

**The movie events; I'm pushing to make Mewtwo happen sooner, or some similar sinister Team Rocket screw-up to occur. What's the audiences thoughts on this?( Luna: yawn, I think someone want Latias to enter sooner so there will be strong chance for Autoship romances)**

**Other than that, no. Now, let's sound it off, this is the call...rise in revoluuutioon. It's your time to change it all, rise in revoluuuution. Unite and fiiight, to make a better story. Everybody work for all, sound off...this is the call! Tonight, you rise!)**


	9. Chapter 9

**The Truth About Misty**

**Okay, here's another Chapter. I'm sorry for posting later than I usually do, CL and I have both been really busy (CL: My life is craaayzay right now) and, well...I don't want to get into detail of some of the events that have happened recently. CL knows what has happened and really helped push me and even helped me write this chapter, but everything is better now and we have moved on.**

**Now, before we go any further, I'd like to thank CerberusLabrat for helping me with this chapter, one of the best beta readers ever! (CL: Now if only I had more time and focus to do this stuff promptly, this would have been updated a lot sooner...)**

**We both would like to thank the 149 reviews; love all of you guys! And while we love the 272 favorites and 267 follows, we'd love you MORE if you reviewed. So get to it. Chop chop.**

**Now, if there's any confusion, I would like to a few things straight; Ash has only caught Zubat and Sandshrew, and has a silver egg. I am not telling what Pokemon is inside, however, if it wasn't already clear enough in the last chapter (CL: Which it should be...), It is not a Cleffa. The Cleffa went with Brock. I am also going to stop revealing what Pokemon Ash will get. Also, there is a plan for the Moon Stone, just wait and see!**

**Now, for the review responses:**

**Celestial Overlord: I honestly like the Misty and Max combination idea, however, I am not sure if that will be too many people in the group. Part of me is wondering what will happen if I mix up traveling companions. Me and CL will discuss future chapters after Kanto as we go along, but for now, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.**

**Dawn Ketchum Fan: Travel combination for the future is an interesting idea, but this story isn't a romantic base; there's a different focus, mostly on Ash's character development and maturity through his journey's. He's only ten right now, his head is full of Pokemon and far away from bewbs. (CL: Okay, I'll admit it. I put that part in.). But CL supports your Latias love. (CL: 3)**

**Shadow wolf fang: You need to be more specific with "Cry on YouTube"...I am not sure if CL knows what you mean? (CL: Unless you're referring to Cryaotic, I have no idea what you're referring to either. As for Cryaotic, if that is what you're referring to, I've heard of them. But I've never watched.)**

**Lightningblade49: As always, I love your review. Also, to answer your questions: No, Brock did not catch a Zubat. I am going to get Brock to catch Pokemon that will help him on his quest to be a better breeder; though we do always love getting Pokemon suggestions. If you have a Pokemon you would like to see Brock get, then let us know. But do keep in mind for Misty and Brock, I am looking for Pokemon that will help them with their dreams: Water Master and Breeder, respectively.**

**Random bug: I like your idea, but it has to go over with CL to see what he thinks. Like you I do love Yaoi, but I am not quite sure how CL thinks of it. Once again, this is not a romantic story, so I will still do teasers. Plus, honestly I can see Ash with both male and female as well as Pokemon, his personality can go any direction, really. (CL: Alright, just to clear up some wondering here: I am a completely straight male. I have nothing against gay people, and I have no problem with you if it floats your boat to read about those kinds of romances, however, I will have very little to do with that kind of thing beyond fixing grammar. That's really the only thing I'll help with on that aspect; just not my cup of tea, sorry.)**

**Revan Lord of Revenge: Good Pokemon ideas, they might be good with future chapters, we'll have to see.**

**Noshadowone: I honestly don't know if anyone left the story because of the Yaoi statement, but it's their loss. If they read carefully they would have seen the words Yaoi teaser, which means it isn't going to be full Yaoi. There would be hints of it throughout the story along with girl romance. But...(CL: Just let me handle this, Luna. NOT A ROMANCE STORY, EVERONE. GOT IT? GOT IT. GOOD. OKAY. Ahem. Back to you.) ...yeah, that. There will be romantic teaser in the story, but at least at this juncture, there won't be a full couple. Ash can go with any type of romance; I can see him with ANYONE, who knows, at the end this might be the first harem that could have both female and male partners with Ash including Pokemon. CL, do you have any comments to back me up? (CL: I personally support the idea of Latias, Dawn, and possibly May. Possibly. However, I don't think Romance should at all be a focus in any form of the word focus until Hoenn. Which, I personally think by then THIS story should be finish, and we'll have moved on to writing a sequel; I don't know what Luna thinks of this, but I think we should split this into separate stories, as the anime did [i.e. Pokemon, Pokemon Advanced Generation, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, Pokemon Best Wishes, etc.], As for deino, I don't know what that Pokemon is. Cool idea, but we'll see where this goes. (CL: FLYING BY THE SEAT OF OUR PANTS. WOO! Anyway, Luna, Deino is a Dark/Dragon-type that is the Basic form of Hydreigon. I know next to nothing about it because SCREW GENERATION V but yeah.)**

**Oh I am Slain: Thank you so much for your comment, as for Battle Strategies, CL, do you have any comments on Scyther biting through rock? (CL: It was one of those things where I was tired when I was editing your chapter, I read it, thought 'wait, seriously?' and then kind of shrugged it off and just edited it for grammar and spelling. I was too lazy to think of another idea entirely and change the direction of the chapter to the point where it would be all janky and such. On a completely unrelated note, I was thinking we'd have Ash hold off on the wordless orders/independent fighting until he'd discovered Aura or simply became closer to his team.**

**Princessfrankie:L Thank you! I am trying my best to bring them out more! Those two always drove me crazy because if you read their backgrounds, they seem like cool characters but it never really got brought up, So I am trying to round them up more and not just Ash in this story, though Ash is still going to be the main one.**

**Badgedbadger: Hmm, I never thought my summary might need work. What do you think CL? (CL: I could work some magic with the summary. It was enough to pique my interest, but let's be honest; a lot of people judge a book by the cover (myself included) and if we can't make the summary interesting, how the heck could we make the story interesting?) Also, CL needs to take most of the credit. He helped me make this story; make the scenes, and re-write it. He's an awesome beta reader and if I lose him we're screwed. (CL: Honestly, Luna, the only thing you need to work on is grammar and spelling. That's honestly the only thing I fix during most of my edits. Maybe fill in a little bit of detail and fact check to make sure a 2 pound Koffing isn't slamming into walls and causing cave-ins, but beyond that, it's all you.) **

** : I agree about AJ, but the same could be said about Bill and a lot of other Pokemon characters. But I will try to bring them back more. **

**Whoa, okay. I hope my answers clear some things up. Now enough with the chit chat, It's story time!**

We once again find our heroes on their way to another gym. Despite Ash's outburst on Gary's lovely little message, he the young trainer had appeared to get over it relatively quickly; Blade, the ever-calm Scyther, for one, being especially approving of the calm. His two human companions weren't exactly sure that Ash was even just a child at heart; when training, the youngest of the three was wise beyond belief for a ten-year-old, although he claimed he was just using common sense. Maybe the trait was honestly that rare. Then, there was his battle style; it was unusual. Different. The out of the box thinking had truly thrown Brock, former Rock-type gym leader of Pewter City, way off. Misty, on the other hand, couldn't help but admire his compassion for Pokemon. Not just his own, but all of them. He focused on _helping_ the Pokemon he encountered, rather than just catching them.

Though usually, he ended up catching the wild ones he helped anyway...or, were they catching him? She had traveled more than the other two combined, so far. When she'd started her travels, she wanted to catch more Water-type Pokemon; not thinking about anything else. Not which type she wanted, or if they even wanted to join her in the first place. That being said, Goldeen, Shellder, and Surskit were her only three caught Pokemon that were _actually_ hers. Staryu and Starmie...well, they belonged to her, but they weren't really hers to begin with. She hadn't caught them. She hadn't trained them.

But we're getting side-tracked from the main story, aren't we? The final thing that made Ash...well..._Ash_ was the child-like attitude he had; it was plainly obvious that he was a momma's boy. His thoughts were innocent, but with the belief that anything was possible; he had to have a certain Pikachu shock him every morning to get him up out of his sleeping bag, he had _no _table manners whatsoever; it was more akin to seeing exactly how much food he could stuff in his mouth in the space of thirty minutes, rather than even attempting to be polite. And he was always eager to learn.

Brock easily discovered that the hard way; as soon as Ash realized he could cook Pokemon food, the young trainer had eagerly wanted to learn instead of just mixing some crushed berries in with the normal food. And, of course, Brock couldn't turn down the innocent puppy og eyes the younger trainer had pulled on him. But he did insist that Ash learn how to cook human food first, before trying his hand at Pokemon food...That being said...let's just say Ash is still learning and is finally starting to improve. Or maybe it was the two of them building some form of immunity to the poison of his cooking. So yes, with his attitude, it was quite easy to underestimate the kid and his whole team.

And it appeared as if Ash was starting to figure out that people underestimating him was a _good _thing; at least for him.

Devious little kid...

Speaking of Pokemon, however. It appeared as if a little blue Nidoran was dangerously quiet. Misty, out of the group, knew Ash's Pokemon the best other than Ash himself, simply due to the fact that she'd been with him longer. Point being; she was more terrified right now of the poison rodent, than of the giant bug Pokemon standing next to her right now. The usual hyper-active little mouse was just eerily calm. Yet with each step she took, her eyes seemed to glow an even darker red. And Misty could literally see the fire in them...not Aednat's usual battle hungry fire; but a strong, smoldering ember, not dissimilar to flowing lava. Promising doom as it made it's way down the slope of a volcano to destroy your house, your neighborhood, and everything you held dear.

"Aednat, are you alright?" Ash's voice broke the awkward silence.

The little rodent huffed. "Nido."

Her trained responded by halting in place and turning around, bending down to Aednat's eye level...or as close as he could get that wouldn't have him lying _entirely_ on the ground, and smiled gently at her. "You can tell me what's wrong..."

To say nobody was ready for the explosion of "Nido-nido-nido-ran-ran-nidoran-nido-nido-ran!" That followed, complete with Aednat rearing back to her hind legs and waving her forelegs around wildly, screaming in complete outrage. Misty and Brock both jumped back; Misty even going so far as to forget her fear of bugs and hide behind Blade; who, as usual, stood stock still with the redheads hands holding the bugs shoulders as she cowered in fear. "Ran-ran-niiiido-do-ran!" With that, the flame around Aednat's form appeared to slowly be dying down...or maybe she was just slowing down to breathe.

A fingerless gloved hand appeared on the rodents head, rubbing her scalp soothingly; actions which caused her to relax a little, and lean into her trainer's touch.

"I understand you're upset at Gary's message. And I'm not sure if it's the same Gary that hurt you either, but you can't let it get to you..." Ash murmured softly.

"Nido?"

"You see, bullies like Gary are weak. They feel they need to put other people down in order to make themselves feel better. Mom said that Gary tries to cover up for something he is missing. I think she called it over-confrontation or something?"

Here we run into the obvious issue where Misty and Brock were both older...and therefore more knowledgeable about the subject that Ash was unknowingly referring to. Both of them blushed a bright red as soon as it registered.

"...Nido?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. He's missing confidence. Or severely lacking in it. That's why he's over-confrontation-ing...is that a word? For!"

The two older teenagers both practically fainted at what they heard. _Only Ash._ Was the thought that cross both of their brains.

"Wait a minute!" Brock noted a moment later, a realization hitting him once the 'Gary' fiasco and disbelief at Ash's obliviousness had run it's course. "Do you understand Pokemon?"

"What do you mean, Brock?" Misty questioned, blinking in confusion at Brock's question.

"Haven't you notice that Ash is able to talk to his Pokemon?" The redhead wasn't entirely sure Brock hadn't given an exasperated sigh at the fact that he even had to explain this part.

Ash seemed completely unconcerned as to whatever Brock was babbling on about; he was getting up from his eye-level position with Aednat while pulling out his Pokedex to see how far they had left to walk. His Pokemon seemed to care about what the other two humans were discussing as their trainer did...that is to say, not one bit.

"Ash, can you speak to Pokemon?" Misty directed the question towards the youngest of the three humans, causing the kid to rub the back of his head sheepishly, while attempting to think of a way he could explain his connection to his Pokemon.

"I...Don't _really_ speak to Pokemon...it's more like I can...uh...feel what my Pokemon are trying to tell me." Ash shrugged lamely at the end, feeling that it was a terrible summary towards his ability, but it was really all he could think of.

"...Explain." Brock replied, pulling a notebook and a pen, seemingly out of nowhere; all with his new Cleffa resting upon one of his broad shoulders; looking at the notebook curiously, trying to figure out where it had come from. "Clef-Cleffa?"

"It's hard to explain." Ash sighed, once again trying to think of a way to word his response so that it would make some semblance of sense. "It's like I know what my Pokemon are feeling, or what they're trying to tell me. I couldn't tell you word for word what they're saying...but I can get the gist of it."

"So can you only do it with your Pokemon?" The Orange-haired girl next to him asked, while the Surskit sitting on her head tilted it's head...nearly it's entire body, to the side.

"Well...not exactly." Ash lifted his right arm up towards her head, Surskit leaning in towards him while the dark-haired youth's fingers found that sweet spot on the back of his neck; the kid truly had magic fingers. "I can understand my Pokemon the best, but I can understand some of yours a little bit too. Take Surskit, for example. He's your Pokemon, but I know what he feels better than, let's say, one of your starfish Pokemon."

"...That was absolutely confusing." The girl groaned, massaging her temples as she tried to figure it out.

"Why do you think I said it's hard to explain?" Ash questioned dryly, even though he had a smile on his face as he did so.

"I think I get it. You're saying you're like a Pokemon Empath?" Brock questioned, writing down a series of notes in his book, with the little pink Cleffa on his shoulder nodding and calling her own name as if he were doing a good job.

With a few looks and nods, and a satisfying end to the conversation...though one particular female trainer was still confused, the trio continued on their journey.

It didn't take long to get to the end of the road...Where Misty's eyes widened as soon as she read a particular sign. _Cerulean City Ahead._ The last time she had been through here, she'd been on a bike. So for one, the trip had gone a lot faster, and for two, she hadn't been paying nearly as much attention to the scenery as she'd been able to now, when walking.

Without even thinking, the water trained seized the arm of their young leader...It _was _his journey, and they were just tagging along after all, and pulled him back. "Wait!"

The target of her actions cried out in surprise. "Whaaa-?"

"Let's go somewhere else. Like _Vermilion City."_ Misty suggested with _far_ too sweet of a smile for the hot-headed temper she usually displayed.

"But Cerulean is closer. Why would I want to go further? Not to mention we need to stop at the Center and rest up and restock on supplies. You've been complaining for days now about wanting a bed to sleep on!"

"That, and all the Cerulean City Gym Pokemon are based off the Water-type. I thought you said you were a Water-type trainer. Wouldn't you like to go there and see some techniques?" Brock piped up in confusion, while still nodding at Ash's statement; she had been complaining for almost a week now about wanting a real bed to sleep on.

The orange-haired girl refused to meet their eyes. "I can't go back there. I just...I can't. Not until I become a water master." She declared, clenching her fist in determination, her whole body shaking. Surskit took the moment to drop down to her shoulder and rub his head against her cheek, trying to calm her down. If only a little bit.

Ash blinked, pausing for a moment as he tried to figure out why Misty would be so desperate to avoid Cerulean City. _Wait, so. She doesn't want to go BACK to Cerulean City...Until she becomes a Water Master...The Gym is Water-Type...So is she...? _"Why can't you go back? Misty, are you connected to the Cerulean Gym somehow?"

Her blue eyes blinked in surprise and shot to his warm chocolate orbs, she bit her lip nervously. But then dropped her head and sighed out a breath. "I...yes. My full name is Misty Waterflower. Violet, Lily, and Daisy Waterflower are my older sisters...and the Gym Leaders."

"Wait, so you're one of the Cerulean Sisters? But I thought there were only three!" Brock exclaimed.

Misty crossed her arms and scoffed, eyes rolling upwards to the heavens. "I'm not surprised. Everyone forgets the runt of the litter even if she ran the gym since her parents decided to go on a long cruise visiting all the islands in the world."

"So you're a gym leader then?" Ash guessed, blinking as the full implication of what she was saying came to him.

"_Technically_ all four of us are Gym Leaders...But my sisters prefer to show off their beauty and put on synchronized swimming shows rather than actually run the family gym." Her very voice during this explanation was full of distaste at the vanity of her sisters, as well as their refusal to actually run the gym like it was a _gym._

"But if you were a Gym Leader there, then you already know quite a bit about Water Pokemon, so why can't you go back?" The young leader of the group wondered, still racking his brain to the point that it almost hurt as he tried to figure things out. It was odd; using his brain. Before his mom had held him back from leaving with a disobedient Storm, Ash hadn't exactly bothered to do a lot of thinking. Ever since...

Well, he'd been slowly starting to push his mind into gear. Obviously, not such a drastic change that he was _reading _every day, or anything ridiculous like that...but he was getting there. It was the little things that he started thinking on here and there, that really showed the change from the kid he'd been a month prior.

His musings were interrupted by Misty shaking her head at his summary. "I don't know much of anything. All the Pokemon at the gym belong to my parents, and they've already trained them. The only ones that don't belong to them are the ones that are weak, and they're more for show. Heck, the only Pokemon that _I _have that are really _mine_ are Shellder and Surskit." Looking to make sure Ash was still following her, she decided to continue. "So most of my Pokemon, like Staryu, Starmie, and Goldeen, and all the Pokemon my sisters use, belong to the Gym. We're allowed to use them...But they aren't ours. And it kind of shows too. I don't have the same bond with them that you have with any of your Pokemon because I didn't train them."

Brock, being one to understand how a family gym worked...his Onix and Geodude were both his fathers before his, although he'd done most of the raising on them, since they had been young when they'd been given to him, had some idea as to what she meant. And a very good idea as to why she'd left; he, more than quite a few people, realized what it was like to _not _want to be a Gym Leader. He had his own dream. And so did she, at that. But her dream wasn't exactly mutually exclusive to being a Gym Leader, as his was. So the question remained...why? "So why is it that you don't want to go back?"

It didn't exactly look like she was going to be able to avoid it any longer, so Misty finally sighed and broke, telling them the whole story. "Well...Like I said, my sisters all care more about putting on a show than actually being gym leaders. But I don't have their looks. And I'm no better than them at battling, so the three always made fun of me." Once again, her fist clenched, as she thought of her past. "I got sick of it, one day I just decided I would leave, become the best Water Trainer in Kanto, and I'd come back and show them that just because I don't want to win beauty competitions doesn't mean they're better than me. I grabbed a backpack, filled it with clothes, hopped on my bike...and I left. And I just...I can't go back there. Not now. Not until I've met my goal. It's only been a month and a half since I left. I'm nowhere near where I want to be."

"Well, I guess that explains why you wouldn't want to go into Cerulean City." Ash mumbled, rubbing the back of his head as he tried to figure something out. This would definitely complicate matters related to their journey, and there were a few options. "Well, I guess that leaves a couple options, at least. One, you could wait out here while me and Brock go into town, I'll go to the Gym alone, and we'll meet up again in a couple days...or, we could just go into the city, get to the Center, rest up, and then leave for Vermilion, and come back here later." He sounded hesitant towards both options; neither of them sounded appealing to him. He definitely didn't want to be a jerk and leave Misty behind just so he could go beat her sisters, nor did he really want to just _skip _a city when he was so freaking close.

"Wait, even if you aren't in the gym, you're still technically a gym leader, right, Misty?" Brock questioned. Making both Misty and Ash look to him in confusion, Misty following her look with a slow nod.

"Do you have any of the gym's badges with you?" The Breeder-hopeful pressed, eliciting another nod from the female of the group. When she'd left the city, she'd taken a badge case with her, with four Cascade Badges; each one, a slightly different tint to it. One seemed to have a more yellow tint, one pink, one orange, and the last, purple. Since the badge itself was actually made out of gemstones, she'd chosen the ones she felt best represented herself and her sisters, and the reason behind taking them with her was to have them serve as a bit of motivation to her. A reminder of why she'd left, and a reminder to try really hard.

"Under league regulations, a gym battle doesn't actually have to be held _in _a gym. It just needs to be held between one of the recognized leaders of the gym, and be observed by a qualified league referee. Since you have to study the league rules so much to become a Gym Leader, Gym Leaders are automatically qualified referees..."

Ash caught on from there. "...So if I were to battle Misty right now, you could be the referee, and if I were to win, and she would award me the badge..."

Misty finished the thought train. "...It's completely legal and we'd never even have to step foot in the city."

"Except battling here wouldn't exactly be fair, since it's nowhere near water." Ash mentioned, not wanting to fight a fish out of water...literally...to get his badge.

"But there's a river and a lake to the North of town." Misty mentioned, familiar with the area, obviously, having grown up here. "Why don't I keep Goldeen with me and go look for a spot to battle at, while you guys go find the Center, rest up all our Pokemon, and grab the supplies we need, and then meet me on the Route 24 bridge around dinner time?"

With the plan made, Misty handed the Pokeballs for Starmie, Staryu, Shellder and Surskit (CL: That's a lot of S's.) to Ash and Brock, and giggled slightly as Surskit hopped down her arm, over to Ash's shoulder, giving her a wave, and with that, the three humans split up: Misty, with Blade tagging along so she'd have a bit of extra protection, turning left and leaving Route 4 to head North, while Ash and Brock continued along the Route into the City to find the Pokemon Center.

-That Afternoon, Route 24-

Hours later, the trio met back up on the bridge; Misty's hair was wet, as she'd taken the opportunity to swim across the river (with her normal clothes in one of her water-repellant cinch bags, of course), with Blade sitting next to her a meditative position. Ash was walking up to her and his pokemon with Surskit on top if his head, latched onto to it, Storm on his right shoulder, Ace perched on his left shoulder, Nika on top of his backpack, and his new Sandshrew latched onto his left leg. Speaking of Sandshrew; her name was now Seqesh; which meant God of the Desert, and, according to his mother, was a name for a guy. But it sounded feminine enough to him, and he really liked what it meant, so it sounded like a good name for her to him.

Considering the utter amount of weight attached to his body, Ash looked relatively carefree...if the Pokedex estimates for species weight had been anywhere close to correct, there were about 115 pounds of Pokemon attached to him at the moment. However, thankfully; it wasn't. Nika was smaller and quite a bit lighter weight than the 'average' Pidgeotto, which was partially canceled out by Ace being larger and heavier than the normal Spearow, and Seqesh was nowhere near the average weight for a Sandshrew, according to Nurse Joy. One notable absence was Aednat: The hyperactive little Nidoran was currently at his mother's house, spending some time with her older sister, Riney.

Rounding out the group...there was Brock. Who was covered in bruises, a fact that drew a confused and concerned look from Misty...and an innocent smile and 'bad Brock' finger wag from the Cleffa sitting on his shoulder. Did she even want to know what happened?

Ash and Misty both smirked at each other, eyes full glaring full of determination on both ends. One; a deep teal, desperate to prove to herself that she was capable of being a water master on her own. The other; a warm chocolate, determined to win this battle and come one step closer to achieving his dream of being a Pokemon Master. One thing was for certain: Neither side was going to back down. There would be no giving up. There would be no taking it easy. Because both of them had something to prove.

And neither were willing to lose.

**Friends, now rivals. Who will win? The youngest of the Cerulean Gym leaders? or the young naive kid from Pallet town that's starting to use the thing between his ears? Find out next time!**

**Be sure to tune in next time! Don't forget to review! Reviews keep us going! Or just favorite and follow us... but we would prefer your reviews here. (CL: I know. We're very demanding. Deal with it. XP)**

**CL do have anything to add?**

**(CL: Pokemon list!)**

**For Conveniences Sake:**

**Ash's Team:**

**Storm – Pikachu (male, on hand)**

**Bulma – Magikarp (female, on hand)**

**Seqesh – Sandshrew (female, on hand)**

**Nika – Pidgeotto (female, on hand)**

**Ace – Spearow (male, on hand)**

**Blade – Scyther (male, on hand)**

**Aednat – Nidoran (female, in storage)**

**Deliah's 'Team':**

**Riney – Nidoran (female, on hand)**

**Bruce – Zubat (male, on hand)**

**Misty's Team:**

**Cutey – Surksit (male, on hand)**

**Shellder (male, on hand)**

**Goldeen (female, on hand)**

**Starmie (genderless, on hand)**

**Staryu (genderless, on hand)**

**Brock's Team:**

**Cleffa (female, on hand)**

**Onix (male, on hand)**

**Geodude (male, on hand)**


	10. News

**Announcement **

Hello, everyone this is Luna sadly this is not a chapter, but it is an announcement, CL, I'll let you take it from here?

CL: Alright guys, here's the deal. Currently between work, financial issues, family, friends, and the fact that I'll be start college soon, I just don't have the time to beta read like I used to, now, this could mean either extremely long update times for you guys, because I have to fit in my edit of chapters into a couple hours a week, and Luna pumps out chapters far faster than that. Or someone else could beta-read and edit for the story. I would still provide storyline advice and give minor advice here and there, and if my schedule opens up later, I would return to beta. But for now, it's just not fair to you guys to have to wait for me to get around to editing the chapters. If you would like to beta-read for the story, please message me here on ( ~siliconoverlord27) and I will interview you as an editor. I'm very picky with my grammar, so I would prefer not to hand things off to a beta who doesn't edit things well. Thank you, and have a good one guys!

Luna: Please do not give up hope in this story I am still write it and almost done with the gym battle and I already got some parts of the next chapter written out. So please contact CL and who ever he pick I ask you please take good care of me.


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